Interview With Markus Damone of AllFurRadio

By Bixyl Shuftan

Recently, I met up with Markus Damone, the founder and owner of the AllFurRadio station. Although AllFurRadio is considered an Internet Radio station, it did get it's start in Second Life. After about four years of operation, it closed with the intention or reopening later. In  August 2017, the station would reopen and quickly regain a following inside and out of Second Life. Among it's shows is "Two Vixens and a Wolf," which the Newser wrote about in July.

We met up at at the All Fur Radio Club, which is still under construction, in the FnF AFMedia sim. Although incomplete, the two-story club had a number of furnishings, such as dancepoles and nearby seats, a DJ booth on the first floor, and more.

When asked about where did he first hear about Second Life, Markus answered, "Oh wow.  Um it (was) early 2006, and I did a Google search for free MMOs and it was the only one on the site that was actually free. The ad showed a picture of a goth chick kneeling, and I was like 'sure why not?' Plus it stated you get free in-game currency weekly, like 100 Lindens. So it was like win-win."

Once inworld, "Well, I was a little unimpressed. But then I found the search function, and was like 'Oh hey, furries. I know those things.' I met a fur in Luskwood as I was wondering how to get more Lindens to buy my furry avatar. After the help, I was able to have a little more fun, hitting some casinos, doing some club contests, and after about a month I had my first furry av. After that, I was hooked."

I asked Markus where he first got the idea for a music station. He askered, "I found Furnation and the radio station there. They paid money, and I was like 'Hey I can be entertaining on the air.' So I joined. But my third show, the DJ manager was very rude and disrespectful. So I said, 'You know what, I can do this better.' That was about April 2006. So I started AllFurRadio." But his initial performance was basically a trial run for what lay ahead, though a highly successful one, "The first time I opened up AFRadio  it was packed. Though it was short lived due to the lack of money to buy a streaming server.  But the first airing of it, there was about 80 listeners.  And i knew then that if I had ever gotten the money up (front), I would do it again. So after a day and one airing, I shut it down and went back to work with the station I had came from."

Markus would continue working for someone else for about six months. About then "Several of the DJjs with that station who had became DJs because of my shows came to me complaining. When I heard their talk, I reached out and was like 'Well, I have this idea I did before, and it was great then. I am sure it will be great now.'" They restarted in October 2006.

The reboot in Markus' words, "was like an explosion.  I hit the air with a stream, and before I knew it we had 12 DJs and a battle for Furnation had began between us and the previous station we worked for.  The listener counts peaked and it grew fast and aggressive." The first year was a great success, as was the second, "The first year we hit peaks in the 100s and then we did a live show at Anthrocon.  And  that only peaked us more. Soon we were in all of Furnation. Then we were the official station of Lost Furest, then ZZ Studios, and so many other sims and location began to stream us when they didn't have a live show.  It was fast and crazy."

And they had some inworld locations on sims, "We had several. Our main branch was based in Furnation Kitsune as a dojo.  And then we setup small stations all around.  Furnation also set their Furnation Prime station, and I built a second one in the Ryder sims.  The idea was to make there be a place everywhere that AllFurRadio was." But they eventually closed down, "slowly. That was because the sims ended up going down, and they never got used. We had such a presence in all the sims we broadcasted in that we didn't need to pay for a location. It was just given to us for use. So we would have random shows in the middle of sandboxes because we could.  It got to the point that we had no need for them. No one used them. So I shut the places down to reallocate the money elsewhere."

It didn't take long for their listenership to spread beyond Second Life residents, "Our first convention is when we really started to spread outside. along with starting a branch in Furcadia.  And it was rather successful." But there was one development that dropped their numbers inworld for a time, when the Voice option was added to Second Life, "I started realizing that we had more listeners on the page than in-game. And it was mainly due to Voice being so new. And yes, sadly the moment Voice was enabled in SL, our numbers dropped. Everyone would rather voice with each other then turn the stream and and listen to us."

The station would recover those numbers soon, but from outside Second Life, "by the time that had taken full swing, we had already (been) down several conventions. So a large number of the base was outside of Second Life, (and) had never even heard of SL. And since there is no voice chat in Furcadia, we still increased. So overall, the base in Second Life dropped, but outside it increased.  We also found that the listeners outside of SL listened longer, and were less likely to stop listening in exchange for something else, because at that time, there was nothing else furry related on the net."

The station would have it's challenges over time, "We had  several.  Some DJ would say something and p*ss another off.  The worest though was what helped lead to the station closing   It detailed with one staff member getting so mad, I cant even remember what for, and he convinced the general manager to leave AFradio's Furcadia branch  and all the DJs as well. Overnight the station went dark. This was in March 2011. ... The station closed down." Markus told me real-life matters were part of the reason for the closing, "I had just become a father, (and) I was working crazy hours." He did make one attempt to reopen it a year later, "but it wasn't going to happen."

But in September 23, 2017, AllFurRadio officially reopened, "It was welcomed  and to my surprise many were happy to see if back." It was successful from the start, though Markus credits the "Two Vixens and a Wolf" radio show by Svetlana Snowpaw, Roxy Noir-Snowpaw, and Greigh VonGottreich,  "I was finding it hard to get broadcasters, and when they came along their excitement and enthusiasm was what I needed to refuel the fire. And yes, their show attracts a lot of new listeners each show. It's the entertainment furs want, not just  playing music like a Second Life DJ, but doing a real show that is professional in nature. They showed me what I had forgotten and what I was missing, that excitement, that passion, that form, the time I had lost due to all the things that had slowed down the station."

When I asked about what special event was being planned to celebrate the anniversary of AllFurRadio's reopening, Markus told me although officially it reopened in September, the real reopening was a month earlier, "That's the funny part. The opening was in August, so we ran as soft opened for the time. Our celebrated reopening date was August the 10th 2018. So this day to be honest will just (be) spent with the staff.and enjoyed with each other and our hard work thus far."

And what are the future plans for the station? Markus answered, "More cons for one. We are also opening up our other branches: AllFurMedia and AllFurNews.  Allfurmedia is schedule to be fully open sometime at the beginning of the year with the sitcom "Are You Furreal." AllFurNews "is suppose to be mainly about furry events. Right now, we are working with a contributor,  The Furry Times, and getting them setup as well looking for other correspondence and contributors. We are working on a lot of different things. Thinking of SL shows. full animation. live video, but most of this is in the infancy."

And what do his real life friends and family think of his radio station? Markus answered, "My wife does, and my mother-in-law are both co-owners.  In fact, I met my wife from one of my DJs back when I first ran the station." Second Life and the station had worked out well for him, "Indeed it has. To always for the best, but always great in the end."

A year after AllFur Radio's official reopening, Markus and his station are doing well.

Bixyl Shuftan

Holocaust Survivor Speaks at the VWBPE Conference

By Bixyl Shuftan



On March 21, The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference had an unusual guest speaker: FannyStarr Hilltop. In real life Fanny Starr is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust of  WW2, in which they murdered a total of eleven million civillians, the majority in concentration camps. Explorer Dastardly, FannyStarr's real life daughter (Helen Starr), was there with her near the podium as she spoke. LoriVonne Lustre typed what she spoke via voice and posted it through announcement chat.

Under the Nazi regieme, about 20,000 concentration camps, ghettos, and similar locations were set up, used for various purposes from slave labor, temporary way stations for transit, and extermination camps built for mass murder. The places FannyStar had been stationed at were the Lodz Ghetto, where people faced starvation and disease, Auschwitz where those imprisoned faced the gas chamber and crematorium, Mauthausen which killed by working people to death, Ravensbruck, which had women only, which provided slave labor for Siemens Electric Co., and Bergen Belsen which also killed through diseases and starvation.

FannyStarr described her experiences to the audience. She had been born in the city of Lodz Poland, home to Europe's largest Jewish community, and lived an ordinary life until September 1939, when Hitler ordered German forces to invade the country, which was overrun in less than a month, "In 1939, The Nazi’s came and took control of the Jewish population, 230,000 Jews, and established, the Litzmannstadt (Litzman’s City) or the Lodz Ghetto and locked-up all the Jews. I was made to work in a tailor shop, making uniforms. I did not know how to sew.  We did not know, we were youngsters."

Life in the ghetto was brutal as the Nazis crowded large numbers of people in tiny sections of town, with the threat of death if they tried to leave. For food and medicine, they had to rely on smuggling and what were essentially starvation rations provided by the Germans. These combined with the breakdown of sanitation led to thousands dying from starvation and disease. Explorer Dastardly spoke, "There was no food or a place to grow food. People started to die and the bodies started to pile up." FannyStar added, "We did not have a hearse or a way to being bodies to the cemetery."

There were also acts of unbelievable cruelty, "In The Lodz Ghetto, my mom got sick with pneumonia, and we took her to the hospital. The Nazis did not have complete control of the hospital. We heard the Nazis where going to the hospital, and I ran with my sister to the hospital to get our mother. We heard loud noises in the corridors; the Nazis were shouting, 'get out,' and  they took all the patients out of the hospital.  The Nazis took the mothers who just gave birth to newborns and shot them dead. The Nazis went to the nursery, and took the babies. The Nazis laughed as they smashed the babies smashed into the walls. They took the legs of the babies, and tore them into two pieces. We rescued our Mom, somehow." She paused, "This is so hard to talk about, even after 70 years. Why did this happen?"

Eventually, the Nazis made the decision to deport the Ghetto's Jews, Explorer saying, "When the ghetto was closed, everyone was sent to concetration camps." FannyStar spoke, "We did not know why we were being sent to one direction or the other. We were marched to a big hall and stripped, our heads were shaved. I was with my younger sister, we could not recognize each other. We were marched again, and sat there for 3 days, naked. When we got off the train, my Mom and my brother were thrown on a truck, sent straight to the gas chambers. That was the last time I saw them. My father was sent to Dachau. My sister died in Teblinka."

Explorer pointed to a certain image on the screen, "In this image you see the SS symbol, Irma Gresse." FannyStar commented through voice the symbol still made her shiver with fear after all those years, "Irma Gresse would go around and hurt people for no reason. My sister and I were picked to go to Ravensbruck. There was no food or water.  People died. I was lucky.  I cut myself and was told that I had a disease, so I had to go to the gas chamber. My sister came with me and she talked them into saving me. She is my lucky charm."

FannyStarr was asked, "What would you tell people who are Holocaust deniers?" She described once overhearing a priest saying that it was a good thing that the Holocaust had taken place, "Hitler did a good job." She was taken aback, especially since that it was someone from the clergy saying that, "I stood up and said 'you should be shamed,' and I walked away."

A chart placed on the display screen showed a survey (taken by ADL Global 100) in which about a third of those surveyed think either the numbers of civilians murdered in the Holocaust was either greatly exaggerated, or never even happened. In the United States, it is the Klu Klux Klan and other extremist groups with anti-Jewish attitudes that are responsible for the holocaust denial movement. Around the world, over a billion harbor anti-Semitic attitudes.

Why the resurgence of anti-semitism and Holocaust deniers? Explorer Dastardly felt, "The Internet has brought out the deniers and empowered anti-semitic movements through radical extremism. Web 2.0 empowers bullying and hatred by encouraging sometimes anonymous acts of violence to promote their beliefs. In Italy last year, there was a group of neo-nazis who published all the personal information about Jews in Italy." But technology could also help stop the anti-semites, "but also, the Internet and this technology allows us to speak and educate as well. People need to know and the more they will prevent such things happening again."

Both Fanny Starr and her late spouse began to educate people about the holocaust, "My husband and I talked to schools and colleges, but we were not invited to speak to our synagogue. This is such a shame that Jewish children do not know." Someone asked how could these kinds of atrocities be prevented. Explorer answered, "Not prevented, but fighting back through education is a powerful tool. Education through awareness, and that awareness includes Holocaust education. We learned the power of one young girl Malala Yousafzai who defied hate, and anti-Education by speaking-up for her human rights as a woman. Malala, won the Nobel Peace Prize, for education, read her story. Nobel Peace Price - Malala Yousafzai. What an incredible role model. We can not prevent natural disasters, but we can help through awareness to stand up to governments and other groups, like Malala -- the youngest ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Last week they celebrated this in Afghanistan -- 'you cannot take away my education.'

Explorer then spoke, "What we can learn from Holocaust education? Holocaust education engages the mind to think about: Discrimination, Genocide, Hate, Racisms, Religious Oppressions, Survival. To preserve the truths we must listen the last speaking survivors. Once the survivors are gone the Holocaust becomes a myth, and people will ask, Did the Holocaust ever happen? What about education the whole world?  Are we doing a good job in letting people know that they can survive?"

FannyStarr commented, "We were all tortured and murdered without mercy. We fought for thousands of years to have our country. Thank God we got our country back. Halleuah we got our country back! I do not know WHY? Why were we cursed? AFter the war I became an atheist, asking God why I lived to see what was done. I would like to know if any one in the audience has answer?" The answer was moments of silence, followed by someone saying, "There IS such a thing as evil, and it hates the people that bear the name of G_d."

FannyStarr spoke, "When we  started going to the schools, we were often asked why don't you change your denomination? No I said, I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew." Someone asked why she was an atheist for a time. She answered, "Because initially I could not cope.  We were the chosen people. ... When I had children, we decided we needed to show them what it is to be a Jew. It is important to go on with your lives and tell the stories so others know."

Someone asked how they felt about the Germans today. FannyStarr answered, "The chancellor made them provide the information in schools." Explorer added, "In  Europe it is mandatory to teach about the Holocaust. In the US we try to teach it, and ask that this become mandatory. It is taught in a limited way in some schools / states."

There were questions about Nazis who fled to Argentina, and the current government in Greece bringing up German actions in the country during World War 2. Could Genocide happen again? FannyStar thought it was possible, "Yes. Why can it happen? People are being praised for attacking Jews."

Explorer told the crowd, "If you can't teach in one way, you can teach in other ways. Think about how we are using this platform to talk to Fanny, the survivors." When asked about if they came across any non-Jewish survivors the of Holocaust, Explorer answered, "Many do not want to talk.  They are shamed.  They are still in shock because the could not stop what happened to them. One of my mothers friends was orphaned, and she felt shamed."

FannyStarr mentioned, "One thing my husband and I felt was important.  As we knew what hunger was, we feed homeless people. We deliver food the homeless and the mentally ill, sandwiches and water that we distribute downtown." Someone asked how she felt about laws in some states making feeding the homeless illegal. She answered, "I feel good when I can feed a homeless person.  The government is against it.  A policeman told me it was against the law.  I told him, I am a holocaust survivor.  He left me alone."

Someone asked "Why didn't everyone run?" FannyStarr answered, "Why? How could you? we were too scared." Someone asked if they had any hint as to what was about to happen. FannyStar answered, "No, we had no idea. In the ghetto, we were told by Romkowski that we were going to a paradise. It was bitter herbs, not paradise. I still remember when the Nazis took my father and interrogated him. He was beaten so badly and thrown on our steps. Mom tried to bandage his poor head. There are so many stories about the brutality of the Nazis.  They were despicable. When there was the trial, they all denied. How could they kill young people like my brother.... he was a beautiful singer. He could have had a wonderful career."

Someone was asked how they felt about the issue of an independent Palestinian state. FannyStar answered, "If this will bring peace, I am not against it.  But people need to work together to have this." Explorer remarked, "we want a state but Hamas has to go. We all saw what Bibi said about not supporting the Palestinian state.  however, he has backtracked.  He acknowledges that there must be peace with all Israel's neighbours. We all agree that Hamas has to go.  They have ties to ISIS."

Someone asked, "My family were Polish Jews, and no one spoke about it. We must have had family members who died.  How do we find their stories?" Explorer answered, "I would recommend going to the list of sources on the slides I shared.  There is a lineage site, genealogist and family historians. Yad Vashem - http://www.yadvashem.org Write to them and give them all the information that you can, and they will help you."

Someone asked if they came across non-Jewish in the camps. FannyStarr answered, "No, were were restricted." Explorer explained, "Jews were separated. The way that the Nazis treated the Jews was like they were a disease, like the plague." Another asked, "How did the Nazis keep the ghettos and the Holocaust a secret?  I would notice if my Jewish neighbour disappeared." Explorer answered, "The towns were asked, did you not notice the smell from the concentration camps? They did not have an answer." Another asked, "The movie 'Schindler's List' was horrific.  Was it understated?" FannyStarr answered, "It is understated.  It does not even begin to show the horror we experienced. I met Mr. Spielberg.  Perhaps it was because we were ahead of him in telling these stories." Explorer commented, "My movie that I recommend is 'The Odessa File.' "

Another asked, "Auschwitz is recently being restored.  There is a proposal to make this space a home for indigents, rather than preserving it as is for future generations." FannyStarr hadn't heard about it. Explorer thought, "This should be brought up to the Jewish community."

Someone asked, "What would people be willing to do to make peace with Palestine?" FannyStarr answered, "I don't know.  It is up to the people." Explorer added, "I think it would take recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, that the Jews are  a people.  If we can get past that, we can have peace."

Explorer spoke, "We can never forget that the Holocaust happened. Stop blaming the Jews. Wat is funny about burning a person alive?  Nothing. Keep sharing, and thank you." FannyStarr concluded, "It is a different perspective when you see the faces in the screen than in person. Believe that such a thing happened.  History repeats.  We must stop it."

The crowd reacted positively to FannyStarr and Explorer, "I want to apologize personally to this lady, I am sorry, I didn't realize you went through so much." "You and my mother lived so that you can tell your stories." "You sound like a great lady, and a wonderful lady to talk to." "We Love Mommy Fanny." "She stepped into her past for 1 and 1/2 hours - impressive. She needs to know how brave and courageous she is." "FannyStarr I want to tell you that you are great person and I am really sorry for what you experienced in your life. It's really sad." "Thank you Fanny for your words, it means a LOT to ME." "Remember all the victims of genocide and pray for peace." "We love you Fanny." "Thank you for sharing your experience."

Explorer Dastardly is in a number of art groups, plus a Volunteer for the Relay for Life. Fanny Starr has been speaking about the Holocaust for 30 years.

*Addition* Later on Explorer had a video of the event uploaded.

Genocide Survivor Fanny Starr Speaks March, 2015 from Petlove on Vimeo.

(click here if the video fails to play)

Sources: ADL Global 100,  BBC Holocaust Deniers, Jewish Virtual Library, The Malala Organization, Nobel Peace Prize - Malala Yousafzai, Pew Research Center - Hostilities in Europe, USC - Shoah Foundation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem  

Bixyl Shuftan

Rita Mariner and the History of the Sunweavers

By Bixyl Shuftan

Every community in Second Life has a history, and this includes the Sunweavers. Living in the sims Sunweaver Isle, Sunweaver Bay, Sunweaver Space, Sunlight Bay, HV Community, and Pacific Waters, the "Sunnies" as they are sometimes called go back several years. They've been the home of some noted persons in Second Life, such as Artistic Fimicloud, Lomgren Smalls, and Alleara Snoodle. Also the Second Life Newser's office is in the Sunweaver sim of HV Community.

Recently the Sunweaver leader Rita Mariner and I met up to talk about the history of the group.We met up in the Southwest corner of the Sunweaver Estates in the sim of Sunweaver Bay, on top of the tall apartment building in the sim.

"So, how did the idea for the Sunweavers come about?" I asked Rita.

Rita answered, "It was simple, we were living in (the sim of) MUD at the time and starting to acquire land. Having a group, made owning land more benefical. I had a friend named, Shane Fisher, who had a comic of sorts and in that comic, he had a religious group called The Sunweavers. The Sunweavers idea of religion was PARTY!, singing and dancing, jojfulness. So I borrowed it for our group. We started ... a core group of us, most of whom are still with us. Once we bought all the Land on MUD we could get, we still wanted more."

"And whom was the core group?" I asked.

Rita replied,"Jenni Greenfield, Dusk Griswold, Shockwave Yareach, Windy Lurra, Brolly Field, Robin Hyacinth, and me." She handed over a couple images of the group, "Not the best pic, all I have." Then came one of an area, "One of the Sunweaver's First creations, Sunweaver Park. The group lived on one side of the road, in MUD, we used the land on the other side as a park to get creative and built a park."

It was about this time we were joined by one of the Sunweaver Estates' residents, Becky "Sha" Shamen, after some friendly greetings, she stuck around to listen, "loves the community."

Rita continued, "Anyways, while we lived in MUD, we were having fun calling ourselves 'MUD's Women,' spoofing the Star Trek episode."

"So all girls, except for Shockwave?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Rita answered, "One of the early conditions I put on the Sunweavers to set us apart from other groups, was we did bellydancing, therefore, we all needed to get at least, one set of decent silks, preferably EROS silks, even though, at the time, they were pricey. ... We would then showup at various dance clubs, in our silks and dance, getting a lot of praise, those silks were very nice. But when EROS stopped selling the silks, I dropped the requirement."

"What year was this?" I asked.

"2007," Rita answered," Long time ago. Once we maxed out on how much Land we could get in MUD. I started looking elsewhere. I settled on POCKWOCK, and slowly started to buy up land there. Once we had a decent amout of land there, we created Club Cutlass and Club Zero Gravity. Shockwave had a blast creating the scripts for Zero G," Rita described the space club then, "you could dance on the walls, the ceiling, float in the air and still dance."

I asked, "They looked much different then, did they not?"

"Yes," she answered, "we built our first shopping area there, airfield, pirate ships, fort, etc. secret tunnels, we had fun."

"Sounds interesting. So the tunels were secret passages between places?" I asked.

"Mostly secret escape or entrance," Rita answered, "Just for fun. We liked to get creative. ...  I almost owned the entire sim, but there were a few holdouts, and they wanted ridiculous amounts of lindens for their land. Of course all of this was taking place just prior to LL pulling the plug on gambling."

"So after the gambling ban, land was cheaper?" I asked.

"Land prices dropped into (the) trashcan," Rita answered, "Casinos no longer were profitable and people were bailing out of SL so fast, they didn't care. That's why today it's hard to get renters, (the) aftermath of the land boom and bust."

"At that time I decided it was about time to get a private estate. They weren't cheap. (But) the idea of having total control over it and no neighbors with banlines and PORN everywhere appealed to us. Sunweaver Isle was our first estate."

"How fast did the community grow?" I asked

"Once that was filled up, we had alot of demand for another," Rita answered, "so soon we added Sunweaver Cove. Still more demand, but for public sims. I then added sunweaver Air, Sunweaver Space, Cape suzette and Buccaneer Bay. I had enough renters to at least keep the bleeding from my checking account manageable. (I) Never had enough to break even. Then when LL decided to add the Homesteads I had several folks approach me about getting one."

"How did that go?" I asked.

Rita answered, "I said, 'you pay for them, tell me where you want it. I'll order it.' So I had three different people order them. That worked out fine, until LL changed the rules on them. Raised the tier and limited the use. People started dumping them."

"Did any of the Sunweaver homesteads close?" I asked.

"Only one," Rita answered, "I gave up one Homestead."

"I recall the Sunweavers have included some creative people whom were known elsewhere," I brought up, "such as Lomgren Smalls and Alleara Snoodle."

"Yes, Alleara is still around," Rita told, "but as for Lomgren, not sure what has happened to him. I guess real life got him."

"And Artistic Fimicloud," I also brought up.

"Yes, we still remember Fimi," Rita reflected, "she is one of the inspirations for why we Rally in the RFL. She used to have a nice treehouse on Sunweaver Cove, across from Tremi. We had hoped to put the treehouse back up on Sunweaver Bay, but not sure who has it."

Rita handed me a few pictures. I noticed one in particular, "Oh yes, I recognize your house."

"The house next to mine was a co-worker and friend," she told me, "He was a skunk on SL."

"Is he still around?" I asked.

"No," Rita answered, "he passed away a few years ago."

"Oh, sorry." I told her.

"Eugene Chandrayaan (was his) SL name," Rita told me, "(his) profile has been wiped."

"It seems only a handful of Second Life residents have a friend from real life coming in with them," I commented.

"Dusk brought me here," Rita informed, "and when I was going to Furry Cons alot, I use to let folks on SL know and we had Sunweaver Parties."

"How many from Second Life, and the Sunweavers, would you meet there?" I asked Rita.

"Varies," Rita answered, "I have had anywhere between 5-10 showup, say Hi and then some of us would go out to dinner. Met Kaarla, Twilight, Shockwave, Zorro, Fyremane, Lomgren, Dusk, probably many others whose names I have slipped my mind."

"You mentioned Dusk brought you here?" I told her, "How did that come about and how were your days before the Sunweavers?"

"I knew Dusk from meeting her at the Warner Bros Store, In Chicago," Rita answered, "I had driven up there to meet the voice over actors for the Animanics. During over chats, Dusk invited me to try out SL, It was a stepup from E-Muck. a Muck with PICTURES!"

"I started out in Nueltin. I had to borrow the Lindens from Dusk and Twilight to buy my first land, house, etc. Since I was on probation, with LL. for the first 30 days. My land was out in the bay, so I floated my house. It was the same house I still have, by the way."

"Oh really? How did you come up with the design?" I asked.

"I didn't," Rita answered, "I bought it. I like it, the inside is an open layout, so you can install walls and stuff as you like. The idea for the Group didn't come about till we needed it for Land Purchases. Then I thought about it. Sunweavers came out from that and we decided to have fun with it too."

I decided the change the subject, "Earlier the Relay was mentioned. How did you find out about the Passionate Redheads?"

Rita thought for a moment, "I think it was members of the sunweavers that mentioned it. Probably Dusk, so I joined up. Being both a survivor and caregiver, I fit right in."

"What year was this?" I asked.

"2009," Rita answered, " I keep all my stuff in folders, and 2009 is the earliest RFL stuff I have."

I continued, "As I recall, quite a number of Sunweavers joined up with the Redheads."

"Yes, The Redheads was a great team," Rita added, "lots of us were in it. Pity that it had to disband, but I understand why and I support Sabine's decision."

I nodded, "What were some of your favorite events that it held?"

"Heck, I don't remember that far back. You would have to ask Dusk."

"With the Redheads gone, you stepped forward by founding a new team," I recalled.

"Yes," Rita answered, "Someone needed too. Pity that I haven't been able to attract all of the old Redheads back."

Becky Shamen, whom was nearby, commented, " ...and somebody...ahem...made clothes for the new team (smile)."

Rita briefly glanced over, then commented, "Yes, we have to thank Becky here for the classy Team Clothes she made for us."

"One group that often gets mentioned in the same sentence as the Sunweavers are the Angels" I brought up, "Do you consider yourselves the same community in Second Life, or two close ones?"

"Two close groups," Rita answered, "Nydia created the Angels for her own purposes, as I created the Sunweavers for mine." There was a slight typo, followed by an odd gesture, "Oops. Darn caps lock, didn't even notice until after (hitting the 'Enter' key)." Rita laughed, "I guess I was too busy staring at Sha's chest."

After a few jokes and snickers between the three of us, Rita got back on track, "but the Sunweavers are family. We look out for each other, help each other, care for each other. Like right now, several of us are working to get Jenni's PC working again."

"It's been having trouble?" I asked.

"It died, or at least the video card part," Rita answered, "but nothing we sent her as far as cards, worked. Her PC is just so OLD! I looked at my PC, the motherboard is $22, the processor $14! My PC was bought in 2006, Gateway GM5076E. One is a Dell, the other a HP."

"Besides the Relay," I brought up, "recently the Sunweavers have recently gotten a place in the InWorldz grid."

"Yes, a toehold in Inworldz," Rita esplained, "Not really going to get a huge following until more sellers see a market there and put in vendors, especially for avatars. I have a purple vixen, on PMS."

I chuckled, "Oh yes, your everyday avatar is a purple kani ... was there a special reason for this look?"

Rita answered, "When I saw the Kani bunny I loved the look. And since I am not a lover of PINK, I chose purple for me, just to be different. I have several other colors too, I can put on if needed. I wear pink, only on special occassions. ...  I don't mind Pink on others, just doesn't work for me."

Rita then turned to another subject, her squad of alts, "As for the Sawyers, when I decided to create them, I went totally Black for them."

"Oh yes the Sawyers, Why were they made?" I asked.

"Primarily to help out on Tiny Empires and Tiny Empires 3000," Rita answered, "To give folks with no subjects or subordinates someone."

"I've noticed there's often a few around at Cutlass parties," I commented.

"Yes," she told, "I am personally maxed out on ships and credits in TE3K, so I have one of them around to feed ships to them, as the offer comes up. I cycle through them, bring each one up to a certain level, before swapping them out for the next one."

"And dressed in theme, I've noticed," I recalled.

"Oh, each sawyer represents a major investment in time and Lindens." Rita informed.

I commented, "I've noticed a few different avatars among them, bunny, bat, pony ..."

"Each Sawyer has a Kani, EP Pony, Felis," she told me, "plus I am trying to find them a unique avatar for themselves, but it needs to be available, in black. Plus I send them out for clothes shopping too."

Becky, who was still nearby, wryly remarked with a grin, "I think Rita likes the smell of burning money."

Rita laughed, "They burn 5-6,000 (Lindens) in clothes. So by the time I am done with each Sawyer with avatars, AO, clothes, etc, I have 20,000 lindens in them. Also the Tiny Empire HUDS they aren't cheap, when you get the compacts and fed hud, plus bookkeeping add-on.  So my Sawyers are a major investment. And a couple of them have already been claimed," she laughed again, "Momma Gil has Claimed Sawyer 017, and Brandi has claimed Sawyer21."

"So when they're claimed, what happens," I asked.

"In a way, they are like their pets and/or sister/cousins," she answered, "Sawyer21 is my mouse and looks like Brandi."

"I imagine the Sawyers must mean quite a bit of multitasking," I commented, "and computer power.

"I have two desktops running," Rita explained.

"And the newer one handles the most?" I asked.

"Both desktops are roughly the same," she stated, "one has a little more RAM than the other. I bought the second one off eBay for $600."

"So, after the Relay is done, were there any future plans you had with the Sunweavers?" I asked.

Rita brought up a slideviewer show she was working on, "I try to talk those Sunnies who haven't contributed a photo of themselves, to do so. So I can put them in the slideviewers."

Becky brought up another issue, "You recently mentioned another trolly line. Albert and I were hoping for a road that connected the estate sims."

Rita answered her, "I would have to check with landowners about putting a bridge across the sims to their land."

"Most have cars or bikes," Becky expressed, "It would be fun to drive between all the sims."

"I will have to check with Nydia too," Rita stated, "She might build a road, don't know. ... they don't have the extra prims for a road."

After that, Rita got a call, "Well, Jeremiah needs my help, she is moving to here." She then  gave her farewell, and we went our separate ways.

If you want to meet up with the Sunweavers, drop by one of their parties at Club Cutlass on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday at 6PM, Sunweaver Space (176/62/125). If you want to live at the Sunweaver Estates, contact Rita, Shockwave Yareach, Dusk Griswold, or Nydia Tungsten for information.

Image credit: Rita Mariner, Artistic Fimicloud

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview with Prokofy Neva, Part One

By Bixyl Shuftan

While most in Second Life are known for what they do, Prokofy Neva is known more by what he says. Over the years, he's made a number of opinions on a number of issues, getting a reputation for never backing down from an argument. Besides maintaining some sims out to renters, Prokofy posts occasionally on his blog "Second Thoughts" under his real life identity Catherinne Fitzpatrick. Having met Prokofy recently, we agreed to an interview, and later on I traveled to his place at Waterfall Canyon in the Refugio sim (which has a security system - griefers don't bother trying to enter), and he welcomed me inside.

"We are at the site of what was once my First Land 512," Prokofy began, "in 2004. So it's 10 years old."

"That is pretty early," I commented.

"I came to it soon after it was born," Prokofy continued, "and Anshe Chung had already bought all the surrounding area for a telehub mall on the next sim. Well I wasn't the first here, it was taken over by some oldbies at first. There used to be a big TV and Radio store here."

Prokovy invited me to his den, "Have a seat."

"Of course," I answered, and did so as he took another.

I then asked him the first question, "So, when did you first hear about Second Life?"

"I first heard about SL from Barnesworth Anubis," Prokofy answered, "We were in the same group in The Sims Online where he had the name, Cornelius Vanderbilt and I had the name Dyerbrook. We had a group of parcels called 'Sim Arts' or something like that, and he was one of the first explorers to go from TSO to SL to see if it would be better, people were unhappy with TSO for a number of reasons. Eventually a number of us migrated from TSO to SL. This was back in 2004 for me. I actually made my first account in SL in May 2004, but then I didn't like it and left. Then (I) came back in September 2014 and made Prokofy Neva."

"How did your first days here go?" I asked him.

Prokofy answered, "The first time I made the account Dyerbrook was difficult because I didn't have the graphics card to see Second Life. I went to a hockey game and struggled through lag and blur to see it. I gave up that time, and came back later when I had a new computer and graphics card. I happened to land on the very day that Philip Linden was holding a Town Hall. I went to an oldbie's place to hear it on a relay radio, the old-fashioned way they held those town halls. They had them on one sim but then handed out relay radios to get it broadcast to other venues."

"So I struggled first to sit down on a bench -- no mean feat for a newbie -- it didn't work like TSO. Then I heard Philip utter the magical words ...  I can find the exact quote for you somewhere ...  but it was basically that he had a vision then of real estate agents now appearing in the world, and an avatar with a name like 'Buzz' would appear with a helicopter, and show newbies new land, and have a business, and that someone would build a golf course."

"Now, mind you, this was just a vision at first.  It took me about 3 months to figure out how land worked, how to buy it and sell it, how to work it. I am a slow learner on technical things like SL and it took awhile. I remember the very first newbie mistake I made. I flew around vainly clicking on land that seemed empty, trying to buy it. Why didn't it work like TSO? In TSO, you could look at a map, and if you saw a blank spot on the map, you could zoom in and buy it easily if it were an empty square. So I flew around vainly clicking on what seemed like empty woodland (laughs out loud)."

"Finally someone explained the 'First Land' thing to me. But then I immediately ran into the harshness of Second Life. An oldbie had already captured the First Land on this sim under his various alts. His plan was to put it all under his old account. This was an oldbie and a group of alts that bedeviled me for years and  years. He kept trying to get me to sell him my little rocky plot. It was a mountainous waterfront, more valuable than most even being rocky. But I stubbornly clung to my little turf. I put out a modified house from Barnesworth on it and struggled to try to build or edit things."

"So, he wouldn't take no for an answer?" I asked

"He kept trying to harass me off the plot," Prokofy answered, "It was amazing. Eventually, I had a friend who bought another plot and then two parcels went up on the auction. I bid on them, using the money I had made from selling my TSO avatar, rares and simoleons on eBay. So my very first purchase in SL was $250 US on the auction, and it seemed very scary to me, like throwing money down a rat hole. Essentially, that *is* the case with land in SL as I can explain more."

"But in any event, I was so scared at having that huge parcel for that huge (seemingly) expense, that I immediately calved off half of it to sell.  I had no idea how to price it properly. I had no idea about waterfront, snow prices being through the roof then. I was still in the TSO mode. I remember very distinctly trying to edit the land, trying to make a group with a friend and alts, struggling, struggling. Finally I got the thing cut in half, put it to $6 and Anshe bought it within minutes. Everyone said I was so stupid!"

"Anyway, then I made the other classic newbie mistake -- I overtiered by mistake, sticking myself with a higher bill. Linden Lab was ruthless on that, they would never forgive. In my entire 10 years hear I maybe got them once to forgive on an over-tier mistake. That's when you actually up your bill for the entire month by one rash click on a 512 that is over your tier mark -- or even 16 m,  doesn't matter. So now I had to buy other land there for sale to make it all worth it."

"For those who don't own land," I asked, "could you please explain over-tier?"

Prokofy answered, "Well, let's say you are at the $40 tier level. If you go and click on land -- even a small square -- and buy it, it will immediately simply put you into the next tier bracket. So you go from $25 to $40 or $40 to the higher levels in a flash and are stuck. Nowadays, they have a menu warning (for) you, 'Are you really sure you want to do that?' It says 'This will increase your tier level to X.' But in the old days we didn't have that, so oops."

"Anyway, we decided to try to recreate what we had done in TSO, which was also very naive. But you can only learn from your newbie mistakes. We made a club with trance music, and we also created an architecture club and contests. We decided to reward good SL architecture, the way we had in TSO. The problem is, the meter is ticking on your tier bill in SL, you can't just fool around aimlessly. Tier is a harsh task mistress. How to make revenue then? You can't live on tips. I started making some content to sell, but it didn't sell very well, because I sucked at making things (laughs out loud). My first thing I sold was the leopard-skin men's briefs from TSO (laughs out loud), not a barn-stormer I'm afraid."

I responded with a few chuckles.

Prokofy went on, "Anyway we tried to have these contests and bring in traffic, and in those days the Lindens had these awards they would give out. First you had the dwell payments,
remember those?"

"I don't believe I do," I told him, "sorry."

Prokofy explained, "If you could attract people to your land, you would get Linden dollars into your account. Well, they used to have a loss leader to try to get the community to entertain each other and be creative with events. So they had a system that rewarded you for traffic, and another system for events awards. So let's say I put on an architectural contest, I could get a $500 Linden award. They were handed out like candy. You could have a wet t-shirt contest at the beach and get the $500 creative award."

I chuckled again at the thought.

Prokofy went on, "The dwell was something that could be real money if you had enough traffic. There was a formula. So let's say I could put 5000 traffic on to my club, it would translate as cash. That cash would pay out every Wednesday, just like group fees now debit. It used to be group fees debited AND credited. However, again, this wasn't enough to pay the bills."

"So then I started trying to flip land, and of course, that was disastrous because I had no idea what I was doing and got stuck with 'end of the world' land that I thought was waterfront. In the old days, you could see the sims as they were being rolled  out. You could see a sim being born, often in the middle of the night. The sim would rise up out of the mist slowly and then these little green triangles would fill it. Those were tree buds the Lindens planted. The trees would appear, and it would seem as if the edge of that thing was 'waterfront.' They'd set it to sale, and an idiot like me would buy it. I remember Dyerbrook's first purchase of his newbie land was a fake waterfront like that. Then oops, a week later, the Lindens would lay ANOTHER sim down next to it. Then it became swamp or woodland with no waterfront. So you get the idea, lots of false starts and learning by idiotic mistakes."

"I remember once going on the forums and asking if an oldbie would be willing to be paid to teach me Sl for an hour. And I was scoffed at. This is when I began to see the class warfare in SL -- the oldbies, who were mainly coders and graphics designers, and this other class of people called 'land barons' whom Philip had encouraged to come in in order to have a revenue stream to sustain the development of SL. There were hardly any island purchases in those days. We were terribly scared of islands because they performed badly and had the 'void' problem."

"Void Problem?" I asked.

Prokofy explained, "Also an old SL problem where you literally could not fly to a location over the void. This was a terrible problem, yes. I once bought land on the auction and couldn't fly to my own land. Remember, (there was) no pinpoint teleporting from the map then. These were the very old days, telehub landings, then fly 1000 meters plus, very rocky stuff, sim seam crossings, and voids where you'd crawl around the edge trying to get to the next sim. Eventually, the Lindens filled those in better."

"Anyway, I went from making the club, which I have to say didn't do very well, and got removed and turned into condos, to making a mall, also a trial-and-error process. The Lindens eventually ended their event awards and the dwell system, and it's just as well as it got gamed. After they pulled that, however, they set the stage for the camping stuff -- remember camping?"

"I do, I knew some who did it a little while reading email," I answered, "How did the condos do?"

"The condos were going to be great at first," Prokofy Neva answered, "I had a beautiful building, art deco, and some other beautiful FLW houses. Not many people had tried apartment buildings. It was a bit counterintuitive because you're all on the parcel and you can't have dedicated media. But I thought there was a market for people who just needed a little space to change their clothes, sit with their friends, put out a few things. Not much privacy, but just a little area for newbies in particular."

"So at first I filled the condo and the parcels easily, life was grand. However, I still had that old oldbie enemy harassing me and shooting me on occasion for the crime of not turning over my first land to him (laughs out loud)."

"Then suddenly, disaster struck:  The Barbie Club. A club of hookers and strippers, in my beautiful snow mountain paradies appeared on a 4096 that I had sold to Anshe. At first, I thought, no problem, the working girls can rent my apartments and condos. Boy was I naive."

"The problem is that the Barbie Club sucked up the available avatar spots on the sim, 45 it was in those days, and still is. So if I had tenants, they literally couldn't fly home. They were blocked from their own houses by the Barbie trade. Not good. So everything emptied out. Then I tried to make lemons out of lemonade and rented mall space to Barbie and tried to get the Barbie people to rent. However, they then demanded full group perms to *re-rent* my cheap land. Plus as a club, it was endlessly griefed. Clubs always attrack shooting, grieging, low-lifes."

"That was the end of my club rental efforts -- I couldn't waste my time policing griefers and having Barbie girls sell clothes at huge mark-ups and earn gadzillions more than they paid me in rent, while the rest of my customers couldn't get home. The mall rental prices then were much higher than what I charged -- Anshe charged a fortune. I was trying to get into business by offering rentals cheaper than Anshe. The irony is, that Anshe even rented from me, to then re-rent to high-end customers she had. Trying to break the Anshe cartel was nearly impossible, until a group of land sellers made a stock market and collectively bought and sold land to try to diversify the market."

"Then there was the telehub story, remember?"

"I remember some about those," I answered.

Prokofy told me, "Well, zoom over to the next sim and see the old telehub area, now an infohub with a mall next to it. This was once heavily contested territory. Anshe bought up the immediate telehub area, and another oldbie bought up the island on Ross you can see out the window. They were the early way to teleport, but from one hub to another. That oldbie tried to sell content and have events. So as hubs, they had commerce naturally attach to them. That was in fact the urban planning Philip originally envisioned. It would be like subway stops in NYC with stores around them."

"And it was a great idea but here's what happened, again, class warfare: the oldbies who originally populated SL, the coders and designers, they didn't want to be around telehubs which they viewed as lagfests and griefer venues and blinger hangouts. So they had their boutiques far away in prettier, more expensive sims, and they arranged their communities around them, and bypassed telehubs, which they protested against. The rest of us embraced telehub malls because it was more democratic."

"To get into the circles of oldbie merchants, you had to practically marry into one of the old founder families. To get a spot to display your wares in another's store -- endless suck-ups and cultivation. But telehub malls brought more Western-style commerce where anyone with the money to pay could enter at will and rent. You didn't have to be friends with Anshe or be approved by Anshe. You had to right-click and pay and get the group. So these areas thrived with newer people, and also some oldbies, but not the Brahmin of SL, the privileged early adapters I called the FIC, the Feted Inner Core. So that's where people sold the music systems, clothing, shoes, hair, etc. and that's where I opened up rental offices."

"So I opened up offices on Anshe's telehub malls offering people to rent in my condos or parcels. I started to have a little bit more area then, I had the area around Ross, Refugio, and then I bought the sim of Ravenglass, my first sim on the auction. Cost me exactly $1501, I beat out an oldbie."

"Anyway, the Linden coders hated telehubs. They wanted to have p2p like they themselves had in god-mode. And the oldbies hated that now they had competition to their boutiques in the boonies. This is my social and economic analysis of Second Life that many don't like to hear, but it is really the truth. I once went to Philip and asked me to tell him the statistics for traffic and sales per sim to prove that telehubs did way better than oldbies boutiques. And he wouldn't give me exact figures but he conceded they did very well. And quite frankly, that's why the Lindens put them on the auction at a much higher opening bid, and sold them for FORTUNES, Mainly to Anshe, Blue, and some of those early land barons who made a killing."

"So then the issue came as I've been writing about lately of the telehub cancellation. Word was leaked of a screenshot of a map showing the ability to travel to pinpoints. Before, this was done only by a script, i.e. people sold a script you could load with landmarks that would "fly" you to locations, like a plane or bus. So when that map leaked, some people instantly understood its importance. Anshe immediately switched from *rentals* to *sales* of telehub land at huge prices. She saw the handwriting on the wall. Not everybody did, and kept buying it, obliviously. In fact, Anshe sold me some of her land at the discount price (for then) of only $6/meter. Here I was, newbie-happy, thinking, at last, telehub land for a mall, whee."

"OK, so here's what happened. By that time, land barons were organizing into a political group, if you will. There was a period in SL when people organized into factions or political movements with interests, because there were things at stake like Mainland policy, new group tool policies, and so on."

"Political movements?" I commented, "Interesting."

"Huge struggles were had on the forums," Prokofy described, "Some of these groups were huge, because Anshe would essentially bus in her tenants. I had a group, smaller, with associates and tenants. Then people li"ke Lordfly and oldbies who were coders and designers made their own groups. There was constant warfare on the forums -- this was the period I was banned from the forums 'permanently' i.e. for 2 years until the Linden who banned me left SL and then it was instantly undone."

"Basically what it came down to was this, the same struggle we see today as the news from Ebbe Linden unfolds. Will you have 'creators as customers' or 'customers as creators?' Will the platform provider focus on a core group of privileged customers or 'pro-sumers' as they are sometimes known, the super users who are coders, designers, service providers, and have them drive growth and the economy, or will they have more democratic policies, as I would call them, making easier entry to the market for unskilled laborers or amateurs?"

"In one sense all  of SL is a pretty much an amateur created market -- I mean, most really skilled high-end graphics artists in 3d will not be opening in Sl, they'd work for the gaming or TV industries. But still, (they are) skilled compared to me or you, skilled in Photoshop, Blender, etc. When Philip opened up the land market, and when he allowed the Lindens to be cashed out to Gaming Open Market and other exchanges, he created a more Western style open economy, free enterprise, not the old guild-style economy that you could say was Eastern, i.e. privileged classes of people allowed by the state to be merchants or Medieval even, guild style economies. Some people said SL had a feudal economy if you will."

"Anyway the land barons who were provided the service of land sales or rentals communities banded together. They demanded a meeting with Phiip. Somewhere I have a copy of our agenda in my never-loading inventory, but it involved issues like:

"No more invisible Linden visits -- all visits to sims must be 'in uniform' -- Lindens used invisible mode to spy."

"No more Linden endorsements of only some oldbie businesses and not others by going to concerts to DJ, or appearing in billboard ads (Lindens used to do that, yes, hard to believe, but true)."

"A Linden code of conduct that would be publicized."

"This was because of a phenomenon that happened. At that time 1/3 of the Linden staff was drawn from the oldbies themselves. So you had this awful phenomenon of conflict of interests. People who had successful businesses in SL on one account could go and be a Linden, and then have inside info that would help the businesses of them or their friends. Or it wasn't always so crass, it was more about group influence, some people having greater reputational influence, and being able to use that politically, to prevail on the issue of telehub removal for example."

"We strove in vain for weeks of political debate to prove to the Lindens that the hubs were not laggy, they were a good thing, they were good for business,  they were good for serendipity. I personally took Robin Linden by the hand and showed her 10 telehub related malls and communities to prove they were not ugly and not laggy."

"But - in vain, as the Lindens pulled them. We as land barons then demanded compensation if we had bought the land on the auction, not knowing they were going to do that. And to their credit, the Lindens made a compensation deal. They bought back the land on a formula, or you had another option which they came up with later. First they took all those hated telehubs and turned them into infohubs with hippos in them. These were widely ridiculed. Hippos is a Linden inside joke. The infohubs did terribly. Nobody wants to go to a state-sponsored propaganda stand, which is what it was. So they then said they'd open it up to resident developers."

"Where did that come from, for those who don't know?" I asked about the Hippo joke.

"It's explained on an SL wiki somewhere," Prokofy explained, "somewhere in the SL code or something when you turn up a page it says 'hippos.' It's a placeholder perhaps. I remember I used to see that "hippos" in the old days when things loaded. So they had actual hippos on all perms they handed out that people could modify and make into things, I have one in my infohub. He is very miniature, wearing a fez cap, and you can click on him for the history of the telehub."

"Then we entered the flourishing Renaissance period when we developed all those hubs, with Linden cooperation and blessing, then they abandoned us with them. For a time, they had newbies able to opt to go to them, or be randomly delivered to them. See that was the issue. People said, 'you've just cut off all our traffic and business, all our customers by pulling those hubs and re-directed it now to your oldbie friends and their boutiques or new sims that were being build WITHOUT telehubs.' "

"Imagine, first they build the continent called the Moth Continent with NO HUBS. Literally you had to take a boat or plane there. They thought this would be more 'organic' and would 'prevent blight.' We pointed out acidly that the people buying their shiny (then) new land were not the people who wanted 'nature' in SL who didn't have the money to buy land. So we deserved telehubs. I found out to my shock that the Linden who built Moth Temple, who came and gave a talk to us once on his ideas and where he drew his images from in real life, that they could have made it a telehub sim with one rez and click, just like you do on your own island. There was no 'complexity' to it -- just an ideology."

"FINALLY after a huge battle, they added the telehub object/script to Iris, the Moth Temple sim and some others. Then they put in p2p, changing the economy forever. In some ways I think it never recovered. The Lindens have always wanted content creation, not land, to drive the economy."

I asked, "So point to point teleporting wrecked the Second Life economy?"

"Here's the thing Bixyl," Prokofy told me, "for unskilled newbies, for unskilled anybody, land is how you participate in the economy. Not everybody is a computer programmer or a graphic designer. But single black moms from Detroit, and disabled retired postal workers in Cincinnati -- or a single mom in HUD housing in NYC like me -- could become business people in SL by having land as their opener. They could buy and sell it, they could put rentals onit, they could make a club, they could make a mall by commissioning others to build, they could make some other activity like live music, etc. None of this required skill, it only required sweat equity. A truck driver could become a famous dress maker in SL, but she needed to break into the market somehow, and the telehub malls gave her that opening. That was made possible by land barons."

"Anyway you get the idea I think. Land is very important not only for the Lindens' business model but the SL economy itself."

I asked, "Was there any proposed compromise, such as making point to point teleporting available only to premium account holders?"

"Oh no," was Prokofy's answer, "because they flooded in free accounts. A lot of people didn't want them. They brought griefers, they said. I personally was happy to have them because it meant that an Italian shoemaker who couldn't get a US credit card could make money in SL even if he had no premium account with a credit card. That was hugely important. I had many customers who had NPIOF who made money in SL as dressmakers or club owners and then they had a little bit to pay for rent -- they never cashed out. There were many people who never had a dollar leave SL, they lived, worked, paid for their content inside the world because the freebie accounts were made possible."

"What I discovered from 10 years of having low-cost rentals, there is a high number of women in SL from ages let's say 30-50, or even up to 70. Many are married, and their husbands don't want them to make frivolous expenses. They hate the idea of recurring monthly fees. So this enables them to thrive. Also a younger continent, let's say early 20s who don't have a lot of disposable income. We used to get the economic statistics. We could see the TRUE population of SL, not this "30 million sign-ups" crap, not even the '1.5 million uniques' with a lot of bots. But the real population of people who spent at least $1 Linden dollar inworld. That population was about 450,000 to 500,000 a few years ago. A tiny percentage of those people could spent the equivalent of $5000 US -- i.e. they made money and cashed it out as big land barons or big content creators. Then there was a huge population of people who spent say $25 US or $10 US That was my market of people, and most people's, people willing to spend the equivalent of a movie or a dinner a month. This market wasn't endless. It was growing nicely. but then various policies crashed it."

"Today we don't know its size because they stopped publishing that information. Remember, I am seeing Second Life through the reverse end of a telescope. I am trying to put together my understanding of it based on field experience. Griefers might reverse-engineer the scripts of SL or the code, which they did before it was open-sourced. I tried to reverse-engineer their social systems. So I made land groups or I made newbie villages or whatever to see how things worked, what made them work. If I had been sitting at their consoles I could have gotten this information from their servers, but they didn't publish it. So I would have to test it in world my self. I made my rentals not so much for a business, as I had a demanding RL job, but to see how SL worked, to see how virtuality works. So I would put stores in malls and stores in fields and test how they did."

"We used to get a LOT more information from the Lindens. For example, I once got a windfall from Philip that was published in the Alphaville Herald. We had this problem of the Leader Board. Remember that? or you weren't here for that?"

I told him probably not.

Prokofy continued, "The Leader Board showed the richest avatars, the avatars with the most friends, the most build skill awards. It used to be every avatar had a profile where you could 'posrate' or 'negrate.' I was famous for negrating Philip, which few dared to do.
Posrate got gamed. Posrates gave you dwell points on that Linden awards system too you see. So people had posrating parties, it was awful."

"Anyway, that Leader Board was sus. People wondered, how did certain people get so high on it? And the traffic was sus. People used traffic gimmicks, posrating parties to lure in traffic, later they had the camping gimmicks. It was impossible to tell what was organically doing well in search: i.e. what people really did go to, without gimmicks or bots."

"So I suggested that Philip calculate it differentlly, not through the traffic numbers in search generated, but looking at the profile of each avatar, seeing their 'favourites' and seeing what that yielded. And it was a very different list than the top traffic veniues. Not completely different, because sex clubs will sell without gimmicks obviously. But it was just very interesting. The people and venues the Lindens endlessly promoted in blogs and in-person appearances were not the same as the people's choice. I noticed that discrepancy instantly when I began to study the map."

"Second Life has always had a lot of different interest groups struggling. I haven't even begun to mention things like furries or Gor or elves. They all had enormous political struggles with the Lindens on various issues. The group tool period. See here's the thing about the group tools, Philip had that vision of the land economy and Buzz, remember, that oldbies hated but he encouraged? But the groups didn't support that vision as we quickly discovered."

"The problem was the old officers' election system. Let's say you made a corporation of 5 people and made a group and made yourselves all officers of the group. Let's say one or two of you paid for the land, the others were builders or just supporters, tenants perhaps. At any time, 4 of the 5 who hadn't paid for the land could trigger an 'officers' recall' and *vote an officer out of his own land group, so he would lose his land.* This was a horror of course. The tools were made by California hippies, techocommunists as I called them."

"Interesting name," I commented.

Prokofy went on, "So they didn't want to have 'tyranny' and wanted the ability to overthrow 'tyrants.' They thought of their own start-up culture where coders often end up throwing out founders of start-ups. But this was devastating for a land market. It ruined private property by collectivizing it. See here's the other thing I have to explain. Originally in SL, the Lindens put an incentive into groups to make them buy land and make communities. If you put your land in a group, it would generate an extra tier free 10 percent, so you could hold 10% more land in a group and pay X tier that without a group would cost more."

"So that's why there were even groups. But they were not suited to *business.* They were suited to communes."

"Devastation happened, like the infamous mall story where a few people, aided by their Linden friends, (threw) a guy who had paid for the land out of his own group. I had griefers join my group as members, then trigger an 'officer's recall.' Oh, what that did was freeze me in the group. I couldn't buy or sell or do anything while frozen. So the only way to prevent that idiocy was to put alts into the group. But you could only have 5 alts under their rules, only 5 accounts per credit card. Most people only have one credit card."

"The other problem with groups is that they lag out horrible and chat freezes, and griefing is a problem. So I solved that problem by making multiple land groups. But I didn't have enough alts to staff all of them. So I would find trusted people willing to donate tier, and give them a rental discount. I still have that system. Some people have been with me for 10 years."

"How has it worked?" I asked.

Prokofy explained, "I was hugely criticized on the forums as being a newbie deceiver by offering people to put tier in my group in exchange for $250/week discount, so that would give them a newbie house for $250/250 prims let's say. They would buy a premium account and put their tier in my group. If they seemed reliable, some of them I could make officers. Back then, I got ripped off only once that way. By and large people were decent."

"But we fought to have that idiotic hippie commune stuff removed from the tools. No one who bought land should be thrown out of their group by chance griefers or drama queens. So then they created levels of powers. You could make it so someone could deed media or terraform yet not sell the land out from under you. The nesting groups of powers were complex. Enormous debates took place over them in the forums, and the Lindens convened various town halls and then separate conferences inworld just on these tools. The problem is that the furries who were open source sandbox technocommunist types wanted to keep the old system without hierarchy. They had arcane reasons for this. They wanted to show 'co-ownership' like a socialist commune. The business people, the capitalists, if you will, wanted one owner, the person who paid for the land. Then underneath that, his tenants or workers, Say, if a club."

"The tools had to be flexible for all types of group use. But some insisted that their model of society like communism be welded into the tools. It was enormously frustrating because the Lindens wanted capitalism on the one hand to give them revenue, but wanted utopian socialism as a world model that they thought Second Life would help bring about. But eventually, those early utopianists left and now some of them cause major havoc in real life with things like Tor."

"Tor?" I asked

"It's the circumvention program for anonymous browsing," Prokofy answered, "Read my other blog called Wired State and you can see my discussions of that."

"In any event, the group tools finally shook out to what you see today,  which still contain some elements of communism regretably. That is visible in what I call a bug, and others call a feature. If I deed a prim to the group, a member in the group, whether or not I've given them the power to return objects from sims (one of the granulated powers in the group), can return that prim. That's horrible because it means griefers return TV sets, or anything that people put on 'share' not even deeded. Let's say they have a chair they want to move around. They put on share for others to move it. But then it can be lost because anything put on deed returned to the server is DESTROYED. The SL asset server, when confronted with collectivized property, destroys it."

"Eventually, the Lindens did two things to try to fix that horror. First, a warning, that did little good.But they also set it so that if the item was on all perms, it could go back to its original owner who deeded it. But if it is on no perms it is still destroyed. Most TVs are on no perms."

"Anyway, I talked to the original Linden who coded that. He conceded it was a flaw. But another Linden disagreed when I kept reporting it as a bug on the JIRA because he thought it was a great builders' boon. If you are in a collective, anyone in the group can return a prim that is in the way or they don't like. But it's havoc for rentals. That's just it again: 'creator as customer' or 'customer as creator?' Do you build policies and tools to feed the whims of a tiny caste of high-end creators who tend toward the open source cultism about property rights --they want to collectivize them away? Or do you build policies towards more typical mass market free enterprise types who want businesses where the griefers can't return the prims?"

"Protection of private property, this is a concept of the rule of the law the Lindens not only didn't grasp; they repudiated it. That's why we had ad farms and Impeach Bush."

"Yes, I remember the complaints about the ad farms," I told Prokofy.

"I have to wonder who was behind the ad farms," Prokofy commented, "I believe it was everyone from the RL Russian mafia who naturally gravitated to extortion schemees on line, to Lindens on their alts to Anshe and co trying to drive people to her island rentals. The plan was to exploit and ruin the Mainland and force people to islands. It worked. Only the hardiest pioneers remained through this awful 4-year period. That's a long time in business. 'Mainland Rentals' is almost an oxymoron, although you see more of them today now that there are less destructive policies. There are actually a lot of little interesting businesses on the mainland. I used to fly around and admire them and tip them sometimes or feature them on my blog. Some of them swiped my rental card (laughing out loud). I have an open source rental cube which I encourage people to use for business."

"This is my point about open source, that it is not to be rejected but to be used where appropriate, I'm not opposed to somehow removing open source from life, but I'm for removing the cult that goes with it which is anti-business."

Prokofy briefly went back to his business card, "Well I don't care if they swiped the card and its ideas. But then their customers would call me because they'd forget to remove my name from the card (laughing out loud)."

I chuckled a bit.

Prokofy went on, "Anyway there are plenty of newer people 2-4 years old doing interesting things. You never hear of them, they are not on the forums, they are not in the news, the sub-rosa life of SL. You have covered some of them of course."

I answered, "Yes, I have."

"I try to cover sometimes," Prokofy told me, "but my blogging is limited now. As we are sitting here, I just got ... let me count ... six new customers. Never heard of them before.  Some new, some older."

"And that's the amazing thing about Second Life. During that time I had one refund. It's a constant process, but SL is always regenerating. People have an amazing, amazing capacity to sustain the horrible storms and purges and blights that the Lindens have hurled at this world, mainly in the form of the technocommunist policies, and bounce back with free market initiatives time and again. The Lindens keep trying to destroy business. For example, they put in the Linden Homes. That undercut anyone with a newbies rental business. I had to close or revamp my communities after that. So many challenges like that, so hard a learning curve. But people keep coming, and amazingly, they start little businesses or clubs."

"So that's what keeps SL interesting to me."

*  *  *  *  *

To Be Continued, In Part Two Prokofy talks about matters such as the new Grid under development by Linden Lab, and last year's Terms of Service issues: Click Here.

By Bixyl Shuftan