CAC by Whiskey Monday

It's beautiful, Whiskey.  

Pictures by Jαѕ мιиє aka Ruhsan Criss from the SL Feed

I love her humor and the kind of Bond-meets-Roger-Corman-and-Aaron-Spelling vibe.  Check it out.

https://my.secondlife.com/ruhsan.criss/snapshots/511bbadf6a2f3751f6000001



https://my.secondlife.com/ruhsan.criss/snapshots/50cca96967f8bc6a7b000001

More here:  https://my.secondlife.com/ruhsan.criss/snapshots

Another Pic By ℳαﾒ Rσмєяσ from the SL Feed

https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots/51322252e79ed94c3d000001?version=original
https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots/51322252e79ed94c3d000001

Animal Still Life Pictures by ℳαﾒ Rσмєяσ from the SL Feed

These are images made by ℳαﾒ Rσмєяσ.  He goes inworld (Second Life) and takes these snapshots and posts them directly to the Feed.  I thought they were lovely, indicative of both the artistry of content creators and those that appreciate that content and thereby create new content through pictures, as well as a portrait of that side of Second Life that does not include fashion, weapons, sex, or drama.  Enjoy.

https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots/51280810ac719108ae000001

https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots/5127ebc1635bef023a000001

https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots/511e9e7a79a528082e000001

You can see more of ℳαﾒ Rσмєяσ's snaps and see where he takes these shots (and find out who created those worlds he's visiting with his inworld camera) by visiting his Feed profile page.

https://my.secondlife.com/max04/snapshots
https://my.secondlife.com/max04

Every Time a Mod Dings a Fuckwad Gets His Wings

The subjects of two (relatively) significant and interwoven threads of drama on the Utherverse forum right now are...

1.  The forum hog that is the self-declared district 13 of angels covering the Utherverse for the almighty and humanity.

This is a short story.  Net nanny troll sets itself up as an entire "district of angels" (both inworld and in the forum) and proceeds to post prolifically telling people what to and not to do.  The not-so-surprising results of such an irritation are that a bunch of annoyed adults looking for dramatainment began smacking the troll...repeatedly.  The troll liked the attention, natch.  Some of the posters, for whatever reason, fully committed to the adversarial relationship with the troll.  A seemingly endless supply of AOG (angel) threads and posts were spawned and continue to spawn like bacteria in a nutrient-rich petri dish.  The net nanny troll and its love-to-hate-it frenemies have pissed in every section of the UVF territory...including the Fuckwad threads.

2. The Utherverse's original fuckwad, Fuckwad.

Fuckwad is an old UVF forum whore who got banned from the site a few years back (Friday, October 9, 2009).  He's been trying to return officially (appeals to World Ops, etc.), but without success, as the administrators of the UVF won't lift his permaban.  (How 'bout them apples?)  Just_Jordan offered to be his UV "attorney" in the court of UV public opinion and virtual world justice (yes, there is one) and has happily given him the "tools to rejoin the conversation."  So Fuckwad's returned unofficially using an endless supply of known or knowable alts and a thumb planted near his nose and a tongue planted in his cheek. (Each one has a Val Kilmer Tombstone "I'm your huckleberry" gif and Fuckwad's overt style.)

Reactions have included old forum posters split into three points of view:  1.  Let him back in.  2.  Don't let him back in.  3.  I don't care.  Those that do want Fuckwad allowed back in either remember him fondly or remember him as a complete-and-utter asshole, but an asshole who greatly contributed to the liveliness and fun of the forum, a forum many seem to agree has lately been about as lively as Eleanor Rigby's parlor.  Those that don't want him back in remember what they might or do call the stalking, the attacking, the griefing, the trolling, the ganging up, the harassing, the bullying, the histrionics, and the generally negative and hostile tone to the forum when Fuckwad was in full post.

Newer posters are also split into three points of view:  1.  Let him back in.  2.  Don't let him back in.  3.  I don't care.   Those that do not remember Fuckwad, but want him let back in, are interested in the claims of the possibility of a re-enlivened forum (given credibility by the current uptick in forum interest due to this issue) and by the belief that no ban should ever be permanent, especially when there is a Wasteland.  Those who do not remember Fuckwad who do not want him let back in are influenced by both Fuckwad's reputation as a major griefer-troll and by the fact that he is currently circumventing the ban (another violation of the forum rules) with his endless creation of alts in order to post...posts that include "SG, go suck a dick" messages to one of the mods of the forum, SweetGuy.

Also, to add to the fun and mayhem, the regular, unbanned posters of the Utherverse forum (UVF) began playing a game where the object was to come up with new alt account names for Fuckwad.  Examples include Shagpacket, Wadogum, Waddle, Fackwad, ToWadFuThanksFor Eveything, and AngelWad.  All in fun, right?  Well, yes, until post # 95 when KendrickT of Utherverse World Operations posted that, "Attempting to assist a previously banned member circumvent our bans in any way is considered to be violation of our Terms of Service. Any further activity of this manner will be acted on immediately."  The implication being that playing a game of coming up with new names for Fuckwad's streaming invasion of alts in a thread called "The Help Fuckwad Out" thread would be considered "attempting to assist a previously banned member circumvent" the bans.

This resulted in an increased fervor from the tenured and newer posts who wanted Fuckwad back in - because now it was about forum moderation and potential abuse or silliness of power.  A sample of the reactions:

"Stunts like this are why your forums are dead as phukk."

"What you are doing, is effectively stopping your regular posters, (and a sizable amount of income for this site) from having a bit of fun. Fw(to my knowledge) HAS NOT used any of the names on the list. And my contributions to this thread have been purely for fun. I honestly think you are being a bit overly heavy handed with this whole situation. Sometimes in business, you have to swallow a bit of your pride, and give your paying customers what they are asking for. And the fact is, MOST of your regular posters on these forums think having FW back would be a good thing. YOUR CUSTOMERS are letting you know that they dont approve of your tactics.. YOUR CUSTOMERS are becoming unhappy. Now, if you want to ban me for simply speaking my mind, and letting you know that I dont agree with what you are doing, then so be it. I wasnt insulting, I didnt demean you(UV)... I simply stated my thoughts on this matter."

"With all due respect, if you call this helping him circumvent the ban, you are sadly mistaken. If anything, it would help staff locate him faster... But duly noted. We won't come up with silly, obvious names for FW anymore. We'll come up with other ways to amuse ourselves...."

The Fuckwad-related threads were Wastelanded and a handful of UVF posters changed their forum avatar pics to pics of Guy Fawkes masks a la V for Vendetta.

So now there is a righteous fight against the man.

There is a net-nanny troll looking like forum bait in Victoria Secret lingerie to a fuckwad like Fuckwad.

Drama.  Posts.  Ratings.

Welcome back, UVF.




Links:
The UVF:  http://forums.utherverse.com/
The UVF Wasteland: http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_topics28_Wasteland.aspx
Fuckwad UVF profile:  http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_profile192.aspx
The Re-enstate (sic) Fuckwad thread:  http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst91753_Re-enstate-FuckWad.aspx
The Help Fuckwad Out game thread:  http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst92003_Help-Fuckwad-Out.aspx
Fuckwad vs. Angels thread:  http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst92085_FuckWad-vs-A-C-D-AOG.aspx
SG, go suck a dick thread:  http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst91725_SG--go-suck-a-dick.aspx

More links:
http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst84590p14_WOMAN-UNDER-DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE-PLEASE-HELP.aspx
http://forums.utherverse.com/yaf_postst91704_The-Rise-of-the-Socks.aspx
http://gotvirtual.net/community/members/wad.174/
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/members/wad.html
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/members/wad+huckleberry.html
http://www.secondcitizen.net/Forum/member.php?u=4029


p.s.

I'm not linking the angel threads.  They're all over the fucking place.  You'll trip over them if you enter the UVF.  Or you could just do a forum search for "angel," "cher," "dawn", or "Dangren."

I tagged this blog post with "RLetc."  Ask Laraby40 aka Bolt Riprock about the connection.

Contrary to the opinion of those claiming to be in the "Know," Fuckwad has not been banned from every forum he has been on.  He has not even been banned from every forum he and I have been on together.  Fuckwad was banned from UVF and RLetc, but he still has two unbanned accounts on SLU, one on SCMKII, and one on gotVirtual.  He even had an account in Second Life and its forum and feed. (Has/d does not equal use, btw.) Yes, he could potentially post with his old friends on those forums, particularly a forum like gotvirtual.net, but it would appear this (the UVF) is the forum he wants to post on with his friends.  Much like some of the old, banned Second Life forum (SLF) whores work so hard to get back onto their old stomping grounds with such nostalgic attachment, Fuckwad wants to return to his social home.

At any rate, that's the scoop from one woman's point of view.  Mine.

Enjoy.

Gender Negotiations in Gaming Commentary

One commenter says, "How about a nice female character with strong and positive attributes that I can relate to and feel proud of?"

Another says, "How about a nice cup of Shut The Fuck Up?"


Iris Ophelia entered that fray today with her post on New World Notes, "How 'Knights of Pen & Paper' Spoils a Cute Concept with Offensive Characters." So far the post has been warmly received, if, that is, you like your cup of "Shut The Fuck Up" as hot as your coffee.

But before you either rush to defend or attack Iris, know that she does not stand alone.

Felicia Day, for example...

Backing up, I feel like most of the hatred wasn’t even directed at ME personally, it was at this general IDEA of some “Gamer Girl” type, who, in the perceived mind of these guys, disenfranchises gamers? I dunno. Clearly a segment of guys on the internet HATE “Gamer Girls”. This is the part I don’t understand, why they are so frikkin emotional about it. They hate on this type of girl who “pretends” to game for attention. This archetype they can somehow factually attribute to a few women (then paint the whole gender with the brush) that exploit them for attention, cheapens their hobby with “casualism”…who knows. The irony here is that the “Hot Gamer Girl” is there because….guys click on them/watch them more than non-hot girls. So yeah, talk about creating their own problem, lol.

I know, for ME, when I started this road with The Guild, I had NO women to look at who were not wearing bikinis while they gamed. There was no “relatable” woman/girl figure for me to look to, and that’s why Codex, Clara and Tink are EXACTLY NOT THAT: Because that’s not who I personally gamed with, that bikini-chick. I gamed with moms and angry college students and shut-ins. So to be accused of pandering Girl Gamer, of BEING A CASUAL (whatever the EFF that means)…well, it hurt. But the comments from MY viewers, who didn’t wanna be bullied, that made my night. So thanks to all of you who commented, even if you didn’t like the video, who defended “casuals” and “girl gamers”. Whatever label you slap on it, it’s just another way to hate.

And Cat Valente...

And if you want to see the ugliest fandom has to offer, all you have to do is be a woman and say something negative about a popular SFF property. Bonus if it’s male-authored and male-directed. Shit on urban fantasy all you want. But Game of Thrones is holy.
The fact is, to be a woman online is to eventually be threatened with rape and death. On a long enough timeline, the chances of this not occurring drop to zero.

And Becky Chambers...

If I play a game in which women have been pushed to the sidelines, and I were to ask the developers why that choice was made, the rationale of “that’s just how it is in that world” is not good enough. That’s not a reason. That’s defaulting to the status quo, and it’s lazy. And boring. And unnecessary. If a game sells itself as an escapist experience that will make the player feel like a hero, the developers should remind themselves that sometimes the player is a woman.

Anita Sarkeesian, Jennifer Hepler, Susana Polo, Kate Beaton, Jade Raymond...and many more.  So consider your approach accordingly.  It's all about strategy, right?



Links:
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/11/knights-of-pen-and-paper.html
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/11/sexism-in-games.html
http://feliciaday.com/blog/gamer-girlcountry-boyflame-fest
http://www.themarysue.com/but-alas-she-is-a-woman-how-dishonored-uses-gender-roles-to-tell-a-story/
http://www.themarysue.com/the-all-too-familiar-harassment-against-feminist-frequency-and-what-the-gaming-community-can-do-about-it/
http://www.themarysue.com/bioware-jennifer-hepler-announcement/
http://catvalente.livejournal.com/675153.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Sarkeesian
http://harkavagrant.com/

Profiteering Protest and a Shot at Whiskey

If you read this humble little excuse for a part-time hobby blog, then you know I am a big fan of the art of Whiskey (Mon)day, which is why I got my hackles up when a friend of mine linked me to a deviantART page where someone, who is not Whiskey, has posted one of Whiskey's pictures as her own.

I know how hard-won Whiskey's art is because she blogs about the complexities and difficulties of her bittersweet life.  That knowledge makes this transgression seem all the more vile to me.  These are not hastily cobbled together lolcat or demotivational poster pics for quick laughs on forums.  Whiskey's pictures are thoughtful creations representing pieces of her very being.

Based on the growing howl of protests in both deviantART and Second Life venues, Whiskey was not the only victim of this theft of a piece of artistic soul.

There is a word teachers use on the school grounds when children are cruel to each other that is sounding in my mind right now, "Unacceptable!"

If you find this casual theft of something so significant as abhorrent as I do, perhaps you will join us in protesting the theft of the art of Whiskey and her fellow artists.

And bekidarling, if you are listening or reading, please remove the stolen content from your deviantART account.

Thank you.

- LeeHere Absent


Relevant links:

http://bekidarling.deviantart.com/#/d5izklp
http://bekidarling.deviantart.com/
https://my.secondlife.com/bekidarling
http://whiskeymonday.com/
https://twitter.com/Whiskey_Day
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75351422@N03/
http://singleframestories.wordpress.com/

p.s.
I have screenshots.



More links:

http://archaical.deviantart.com/journal/beki-darling-fake-297734432
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/216/7/b/profile_picture_by_bekidarling-d59rzcf.jpg
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/beki-darling
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/123895
https://my.secondlife.com/whiskey.monday/posts/508a2dbc5c6ef30002001086
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/other-web-sites/68797-crimes-against-convention-lee-here-2.html#post1662170


ETA:

It looks like Whiskey's pic has been taken down.  Whether that was done by bekidarling or deviantART - thank you.

An error occurred while displaying this deviation:
"Stored deviation"

Please visit the deviation page to try again.

http://bekidarling.deviantart.com/#/d5izklp

The page you were looking for doesn't exist.

Go back to our homepage

Or give one of these fine destinations a try:

Browse | Help | Groups | T-Shirts & Gear | Prints Shop

http://bekidarling.deviantart.com/art/Our-Little-Secret-334223629

Pretty Bald in Pink (PBIP)

Interesting and bold picture of a bald, post-mastectomy avatar posted by Tamzin Xigalia on Vitabela.

http://vitabela-vitabela.blogspot.com/2012/09/pretty-bald-in-pink.html

http://pbipcampaign.wordpress.com/participate/

The Museum of Amazing Illusions & Magic

Links:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Enchantment%20Island/44/119/48
http://secondlife.com/destination/museum-of-amazing-illusions
http://secondlife.com/destinations/strange
https://my.secondlife.com/en/second.life/posts/5011a9ac0c05f60002006179
http://www.facebook.com/secondlife?rf=108570922506660
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-543871
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-544143
http://honour-mcmillan.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
http://effie-emmons.blogspot.com/2008/09/museum-of-amazing-illusions.html
http://vidasegunda.blogspot.com/2008/09/enchantment-island-and-museum-of.html
http://slnewserplaces.blogspot.com/2011/07/magic-of-enchantment-island.html
http://justumexplores.wordpress.com/tag/second-life/

R Pub - Where Our Pub Is Your Pub, Bay City - Harwich (38, 148, 25) - General

R Pub being the pub of Sylvia and Tray.  Check it out.

Links:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Harwich/40/144/25
http://secondlife.com/destination/r-pub
https://my.secondlife.com/traydien/#about_tab
https://my.secondlife.com/sylvia.tamalyn