Kendra Bancroft

Doesn't look like a world to me. Not even marginally.
Hell -- it's not even a small town.

Yes --it's owned by LL -- and you pay a subscription fee to use their platform to create whatever you like
using their platform.

They don't have ALL the power --neither are you stuck on it. You can remove every scrap of their power by not signing on to SL. They have no more power over you than an amusement park does when you buy an entry ticket.

SL isn't a world. It's a platform. That's all it ever will be.

A World, Sheeeeeesh. This is precisely the thing that makes you and your mentor laughingstocks to me.

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Pendari

The 2nd rule of FIC is You DO NOT talk about FIC

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Pendari Lorentz
"If at first you don't succeed.... skydiving is not for you."

Cocoanut Koala

Why thank you, Aimee! I appreciate the compliments.

Nonetheless, it's a big world, and there is no point in passing around everything behind the scenes, as happened with me, without letting everyone have a shot at the opportunities.

Aimee Weber

To me, SL looks like a piece of client-server software, written, hosted, owned and operated by a private software company.

Linden Lab's marketing is selling a World. It just like how a beer company's marketing sells lingerie models who are sexually attracted to fat football enthusiasts.

But we are all (most of us) smart enough to see beyond the marketing and understand the actual nature of the product. I hope.

Cocoanut Koala

I already fixed that before your post, by writing, "once in it, we are stuck on it."

We will just have to agree to disagree one this, and I will just have to disagree with your mentor as well.

coco

Kendra Bancroft

Who do you think my mentor is?

CoyoteMomiji

You have a mentor? Does s/he have your exquisite fashion sense and your ability to slice and dice with the written word?

If so, I cower.

Kendra Bancroft

Oh? Did she mean Ulrika?

Ulrika's not so much my mentor as my West Coast doppleganger.

If anyone could claim to be my mentor, it would be my mother (and she makes me look tame)

Aimee Weber

I miss Ulrika. She's insanely smart and articulate. Why did she have to go and be a good mother.

DaQbet Kish

Step this way please.

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DiK

Kendra Bancroft

If you saw how insanely beautiful her child is, you'd see why SL holds little interest for her.

Still --it was lovely to see her recently at my Oktoberfest/Birthday Party, and we do stay in contact.

I do miss her SL presence though.

Pendari

It was really neat seeing her there! And she left the chicken hat vendor out again didn't she? So people can get them again?

Archer Braun

VOLDEMORT!!!!!!!

Kendra Bancroft

YUP!!

Chicken Hats are back!

Sooz Pascale

I don't know who or what FIC is and I honestly don't care.

LL is a business and they have a perfect right to consult with and deal with whomever they want to. IF I were running it, I would want to hear from critics, articulate critics who can string more than three rational thoughts together and who can express their criticisms in a cogent, civil and reasonable way, but that's just me and I am NOT running things.

I think flying in a group of fans [if indeed that's what being done] to fawn and worship would probably be a poor business decision, but its their dime and they can do what they want to with it.

A certain amount of cliqueishness and favoritism is normal in business, its human nature. This will not change.

Basically its this. LL can listen to and promote whomever they want. Its possible that they are not hearing voices who could help them make SL better. Ultimately its their decision and I have no particular criticism of this. The market place will ultimately decide. They have a monopoly right now, but that will change sooner or later.

I am a very vehement and vocal critic of many of their imbecilic policies and decisions, but I can't get in an uproar over the "FIC" thing.

Sooz

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Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library - Barbara Tuchman

Liona Clio

So, lemme get this striaght...

There are successful people on SL who put out their resumes, and are trusted by influential people in the company and in-world. They believe SL is just a platform to express their creativity, and don't take the "Your World, Your Imagination" that seriously.

There are also people in SL, no less talented, who perceive a lack of opportunity, possibly because they didn't market themselves as strongly. They believe SL is a real world, which needs real government...and real injustice happens frequently.

The moral I'm getting out of this is: A key to success in a virtual world is remembering that it's virtual.

Oh, and post that resume!

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"Well, my days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle."

Especially at night, I worry over situations I know will be alright. Perhaps it's just imagination. Day after day it reappears. Night after night, my heartbeat shows the fear. Ghosts appear and fade away... -Colin Hay

Aimee Weber

You said a mouthful here. I think there is also the entitlement mentality in play. They feel that success isn't something one must strive for, but is something that should "go around" on some kind of round-robin system.

Cairo

I'm too new to know what the Fetid Inner Core is, and I guess I'm glad of that.

Kendra Bancroft

But *I'm" the communist!

Liona Clio

I think it's a perfect example of "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

FIC, to me, has become a fun Illuminati-ish idea for SL folk to share amongst themselves. It's lost any mean-spiritedness long ago, IMO, and now is almost a badge of honor. I have a set of FIC Body Armor and a Toxic 20 Cheerleader outfit...as well as a personalized Toxic 20 hockey shirt.

I enjoy the goofiness of these secret societies in SL, and I'm always eager to share the fun with others.


(fnord)

Pendari

Exactly! My FIC badge is worn on the waste of almost every outfit I have. It is a great conversation piece when noticed. hehe

But you didn't hear that from me.

Beebo Brink

And I would also agree that there are whole host of skills that are associated with business success that are less easy to quantify than strict competence at a production task. Amiability is an invaluable skill, as is flexibility of outlook and a high degree of sensitivity to tone and nuance when dealing with group dynamics. These interpersonal skills greatly aid in the development of a successful project.

Transparency and equal opportunity are standards for government work because we are all contributors to that "company" and cannot escape its confines. But virtual worlds are only metaphors for the real world, and they are indeed a business first. If I had any criticism of LL it would be that they need to act *more* like a business and less like the residents of a virtual world.

Expecting SL to be run like a virtual government creates some of the same conflicts of interest that arise when TV show fans try to act, or submit scripts or enter into other professional-level services. At that point you have to relinquish your fandom and recognize the machinery behind the scenes. You can't live within the illusion of the stage reality *and* become one of the actors or directors. The latter are at all times aware that they are creating an illusion, not living it.

It's one of the reasons I lost all interest in a particular genre TV show after writing licensed novels based on that show. I had to stop reacting as a fan and start behaving as a writer for hire. It was well worth doing, but the end result was I destroyed my personal enjoyment in favor of a business relationship.

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Fox Stirling

Your enrollment forms will be mailed promptly.. No need to send your address, they know where you live.

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Tyche Shepherd

Well as the original OP thanks to everyone, I'm a lot more enlightened . I seriously didn't know what it meant (especially the pejorative definitions) and I appreciate all the responses. It was just a term I've seen used (and I'd guess Mother Fic's name is derived from that) .

As the OP I think I can change the tags on this thread so I'm taking suggestions ... Be part of TIC (Tyche's Inner Circle)

Cindy Claveau

Well, I'm certainly not one of those who gets any favoritism, nor have I ever sought it out. But I also recognize that what Prokkie was frothing about was actually a natural part of group dynamics. She just decided to make a huge deal out of it and throw out allusions to Big Brother and claim it was unfair because she had a pre-existing agenda.

My earliest introduction to the official boards was when I posted a thread about Clay Shirky's article, "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy". There was a lot of meat to discuss in his writeup, and he had sufficient expertise on virtual communities to at least deserve reasonable thought even if one disagreed. Prok objected to it mostly because Shirky claimed that inner "caretaker" groups were a natural part of these dynamics. Tolerating that blasphemy would have jerked the rug out from under her FIC-as-public-enemy nonsense.

The so-called "FIC" are really the Gardeners of SL. They led the first trends in content creation and community-building, long before I joined in 2005 and certainly long before Prok realized that, contrary to her assertions back in her TSO days, Second life did NOT require HTML and so was NOT the "province of elites". Her name-calling and stereotyping was nothing more than petty, mean-spirited jealousy because she hasn't actually created anything or contributed much to the SL community other than a bunch of silly memes and paranoia.