Yay! We managed to come together and build something exciting in only 3 weeks. KIDS5B officially opens tomorrow and is open for two weeks so check us out! I have been coordinating the exhibition islands and have lost count how many hours I have put into it this month.

As expected, here are ( some pics )

When KIDS5B started there were two philosophies on how to proceed. Essentially they were to fight the SL5B policy or to go it alone and build KIDS5B.

I think we should do both and we did.

What was interesting about fighting the policy was the number of people who had never even met a kid avatar who knew it was wrong and protested. People were canceling premium accounts and blogging all over the place. They were even saying that if they did visit SL5B they would wear a kid avatar first.

Well, the policy got overturned and we got in.

At the same time we started KIDS5B as an effort to give us another option. While it would seem redundant now it has actually grown to serve two purposes.

The first is that it gives kids something to rally around. We may all have different ideas on things, but we can all come together on this one. Yes, things may come out not sounding like they go together at times, but eventually it all gets fixed as nobody wants to stand in the way of the larger project of KIDS5B.

The second is that it serves to introduce us to the rest of the residents of Second Life. They see our diversity. They see what we are able to do. They see us period, many for the first time. One of the things we we want to do in the build is make it easier to change into a kid AV for the time they are there, but even if not we want them to have the fun only a child can have.

It will be interesting to see what happens to SL when the birthday celebrations are done.

One week into the 3 weeks to build KIDS5B .... a build that in that short amount of time people were amazed if we could pull off. So what has happened in that week?

We went from one sim to 2.

The first sim looks done but people are still adding some more.

Most of the buildings in the second sim are either nearly complete or done.

Lindens Lab reversed their policy on kid exhibits at SL5B.

Kid groups have already been accepted into SL5B.

Second Life is celebrating it's fifth birthday on June 23 (SL5B). As usual the residents were planning it. Then Linden Lab stepped in.

You guessed it, they then did something monumentally stupid.

The other day they made an announcement: kid avatars would not be allowed to contribute to the festivities. Applications from kid groups would not be accepted. Who cares that the kid exhibits were the most popular ones in previous years and that Linden Lab's official policy is to support kids unless they do something wrong.

Oops. The blogosphere literally exploded with discussions. A friend of mine is trying to maintain a list of some of them in her post and there is a JIRA that everyone should vote on here.

Us kids are not sitting still though. We did a lot of work yesterday (I was only there for 13 hours of it) to kick things off for KIDS5B. We have the land. We have the resources. We have a plan. We have designers/builders in Second Life dropping SL5B like a brick and throwing their energies into KIDS5B instead. The main thing working against us right now is time: we have 3 weeks to put together a build that will have people talking.

Oh, the title of this blog post. M is the new CEO of Linden Lab .... he must be having a great 2nd week so far. :)

(Out of character again I suppose but it relates to SL. No, I have no idea where this essay is going to end up. Or even why I am writing it or what it will be about for that matter.)

Communities. Intentional families. The more I use Second Life the more I realize that is what it is constructed on. It is why I spend as much time there as possible and never want to leave it, even if that means going from one place I have access to it to another. It is also why I get depressed that so many people I know in Real Life will not join me there (they either see it as a game or a waste of time and money). One friend characterizes people in Second Life as Immersionalists and Augmentalists, I think I would clearly fall in the former category!

Communities? Did I say communities? Perhaps the word community would be more fitting. Last night I was at a memorial service and, while I realized several of the people there would know other people I was completely blown away by how much interconnection there was. This even extended to later going to an unrelated party which included people (or people connected to them) I or my alter-ego (more on her later) had met previously. In order for this ramble to make sense though, I will use the plural form of community.

Let's see, where was I? Oh yes, my alter-ego. Like many people in Second Life I have several characters that I use. Two are most prevalent though. As I explained in another blog post, it gets tricky to decide which is the main one. One was the sole one I used last year (and the account I pay for). The other is the more active this year. Some people know one or the other, some both. Some people know both but primarily interact with one of them. Like I said, telling which is the main one and which is the alt tends to be a tricky concept. This led to a tricky question though. Which one to send to the memorial yesterday since the person who told me about it knows both characters. One is more apt for a solemn occasion like that but was not the one the invitation was sent to. In the end though, I went with the one she knew better.

Two months ago the character that was my primary one last year wound up in a dispute with a group in a community I was in. Essentially, they wanted to exclude another community I was a part of with my other self. Solely on irrational biases about how they looked, acted, and a fear of "how it would look" These were very dear friends but I knew they were in the wrong and could not let them continue that mistake. I tried to get them to listen to reason and be educated on the topic. I guess they never realized 'I Won't Back Down' is practically my theme song. When I tried to make peace between them and another group they recently dissociated themselves from (in the same community as them) I wound up being voted out of the administration in their group and generally made to feel unwelcome. Now they want to bury the hatchet and I have reciprocated. Still though, my other character is unwelcome unless she disavows the community she is in, which is one also vulnerable and often on the fringes of acceptance. It is for this reason that, while my original character can interact with them again, I feel like an outsider looking in as they refuse to allow my other character to also be welcome in their group.

Interestingly though, at pretty much the same time as I was on the outside of one group, I found myself on the inside of another group in the same community and also in several new communities. Some other communities I was not in, but was friends with people in them. Going back to the links again, I was taken completely by surprise at most of them. Especially so when communities that had absolutely nothing in common (although sometimes individuals in them were part of another shared community) would be oblivious to their differences and work together.

So, I may as well start wrapping this up. What have I learned from all of this? That even though we think we are separate communities, in a way we are all the same community. There are so many links between them and similar struggles that any differences are purely arbitrary. Yes, there are events which can split one group from another, but that happens with any family. While all of our paths may appear wildly different, all of them are just different ways to head towards the same fundamental goal (and, no, I have absolutely no idea what that is).

Well, I certainly have touched on more topics than I intended to all while trying to talk about one idea. So, who do I send this to? Is it just for myself? People in the various communities I am a part of in Second Life? People I only know in Real Life? People I know in both Real Life and Second Life? Oh, I know, the person who introduced me to Second Life? Maybe a blog post? Only one answer is possible based on the above paragraph: all of them. As separate letters though, because, as I have learned, I have no idea where the connections are.

137!!!

I wound up having to put them in a set on my Mom's players flicker. Good thing she has a paid account!

At some point I will add descriptions to them, but wanted them uploaded for now.

Well, it is over.

This past week I have been at Camp Hardnock and am crying now that it is at an end. In addition to the usual fun things at camp I achieved my primary goal: to make some friends. The week started off with everyone keeping pretty much to themselves and people they knew, but by the end of the week nobody wanted to go home.

In fact, several of us have tied ourselves to poles and are protesting that we will not leave.

I have yet to upload my pics, but quite a few people already have. The camp director put together a movie of some really good ones.

[somewhat out of character in parts of this but considering the subject hard not to do so]

A few weeks ago I created Caitlyn in Second Life and realized I wanted to play her as a child. In order to simplify a lot of things, I adopted her from my main Second Life account.

I then slipped up by having both accounts go with me to a location that does not like child avatars (see this entry). No, not an adult location, but they have a strong phobia about kid avatars.

I am one of the admins there and we just had the meeting. I was given the boot from being an admin there (but not from being a regular member).

Meanwhile, Caitlyn is having fun at camp.

So this brings me back to my original question, which one is the alt?