Sun, 12/04/2009 - 09:30
I've just been reading this thread on the official sl forums, and it really got me down. This thread is about someone asking whether there are some "unions" in sl, that defend the rights of land owners and residents. The sad part is he gets ridiculed for asking first, then when they find out he is new (and being serious), they all give answers of the "it's LL private property" kind, implying that we have to go with every whim they come up with. This once more confirms to me that the major part of residency sees it that way: a private company can kick you in the mouth and charge you for it, and all you can do about it is stop paying, and hope for some competitor to show up that MAY be nicer to you... Sure, I agree that "vote with the money" may help, but really, if no one is ever going to help to "stand up" to LL and the like, they will probably never try and change some of the customer service attitude...
Really, are people so beaten down with corporate mistreatment that they just bend over and take it? Or is the general aversion against anything even remotely smelling to "political left" (eg people uniting to try to better something) that repulsive to all people out there? Don't they realize that much of the things they now consider "for granted" were gotten that way? And I'm pretty sure that many of the people that fought for their rights in the past were told the same "it's their property"-thing... Surely, f these people also had just sat there and whined around instead of taking action, the same legislation they refer to so happily in that thread (there is no legal reason for LL to pay attention to any "union") would have never gotten made. Not that I think in this case RL legislation will "save" us, but we may one day convince "linden government"...
I have not replied to that thread yet, but I guess someone of us ough to before it get's too old... I'm just getting tired that most of the people we try to help don't appreciate it...
[Thanks Triss. I posted the following comment on that thread - if anyone thinks I misrepresent slDM, do add your own thoughts there]
"Terry, I agree with you and can point you to the SL Democratic Movement (slDM) for more people that think there should be radical changes in the way the Second Life world and the users are controlled and governed by LL.
As you can see in this thread though, there are still many people who are fine with the "for any reason or no reason"-paradigm and fine with Linden Lab unilaterally changing the contract on multiple occasions. Even with "corporate property" that is for a large part created and sustained by the users. All people can come up with is that you can vote with your feet. For sure, that is a powerful message, but also a way to kill off SL (when done en masse).
I do think the users should have a decisive part in policy and decision making as well as rights (established in the Terms of Service, TOS) to emancipate and protect (individual) users.
That said, I also understand the aversion against a governing body in a representative "democratic" fashion and the dangers of that for minority interests. I do not think we should look towards user governance in such a manner, but rather towards horizontal structures that enable, empower and protect every individual user and very important, that enable meaningful "local" governance, away from the superficial practices it are now, due to SL TOS superseding it.
Therefor, the preface of the TOS should change towards enabling negotiation with user-base (and in effect necessitate structures and venues for meaningful deliberation and user governance/selfrule), away from unilateral contract changes by LL. Another prime target in the TOS for emancipation of the user is of course article 2.6, the "for any reason or no reason"-clause concerning your account (and 3.2b concerning your content). These articles have to change to open up the possibility of a reasonable "justice"-system, to protect the individual user against arbitrary banishment and deletion. To me, this seems reasonable for a product of a corporate entity that is for a large part created by its users, the Second Life world, through their considerable investments (in time, effort, skill, money etc).
There have been many groups that set of to campaign for more user governance and many that have had a very short lifespan. One of the problem I see with most of these groups is that they focus on representative democratic structures, parliamentary style, and never on a inclusive structure that empowers every individual user. Connected to the representative structures, these groups also often focus on specific groups/classes to have political power, like landowners, businesses etc, while never focusing on the entire user-base. But most importantly, many of these groups do not consider the TOS at all as important part in emancipating the user and thus campaign for structures that are superficial and dependent on the benevolence of LL.
As said, check out the sl Democratic Movement. A group of users that thinks about and campaigns for more true participatory user governance and consideration with and acknowledgment of the individual user and the interdependent nature of the relation LL has with the SL user-base.
Smoke"