SL Shakespeare SOS

Shakespeare, Second Life: Though hinted at on more than one occasion,
Ina Centaur yesterday officially announced the SL Shakespeare
Company's SOS "Save Our Sims" Fundraising Campaign—its purpose,
according to Centaur, is to meet "a modest though desperately needed
sum to pay land tier fees to Linden Lab." Through funding from
microeconomics a la a grid-wide network of donation kiosks, the "SOS"
campaign goal is to meet L$1.5 million by January 21, 2009, which at
the current LindeX rate for selling would translate to about USD$5300,
meeting six month's tier for three of the island sims that host the SL
Globe Theatre venue and similarly daring literary and artistic
projects. Centaur plans to fund the fourth sim through her own
endeavors, to keep the SL Globe Theatre four sims in size, as well as
to continue existing endeavors on the sims in trying to make the
enterprise self-sufficient.

At high noon on November 21st, Ina Centaur, Artistic Director of the
SL Shakespeare Company, greeted a small crowd of fans and supporters
at the SL Globe Theatre before launching a speech that revealed the
funding state of the Company, as well as some unexpected humanitarian
results of their endeavors. The Company's performances have reached
both those in rural areas and also low-income urban districts,
introducing many to the culture of theatre and Shakespearean
performances. Centaur summarized with the words, "Perhaps the greatest
thing that has evolved from our endeavors is that it has become a
truly humanitarian cause that we are fighting for—to bring theatre to
the farthest reaches of the world, to give Shakespeare to those who
would not have had the chance to experience his words in the live and
intimate form they were written for, to use this nascent medium to
bring the most quintessential culture to the metaverse and beyond."

Various donation kiosks are available for those who wish to help the
SL Shakespeare Company in their campaign. Supporters may drop by the
SL Globe Theatre or the Campaign headquarters, directly to obtain
copies of kiosks. The Campaign website contains up-to-the-second stats
and other information, as well as links to the inworld Campaign
headquarter to obtain kiosks http://campaign.SLshakespeare.com

Centaur explained that a 4-sim venue is a necessity for their shows,
"To make sure all can attend, and to minimize the lag." In addition,
the sims listed on the main SOS banners—sLiterary, Shakespeare, and
Primtings—also support several other notable literary and artistic
projects. Centaur stated the best way to find out about each is to
spend some time exploring the sims, or to visit their campaign website
above for brief summaries.

Although many may consider Centaur's activites to be merely great art,
after mentioning a few examples of lives their endeavors have touched,
she summarized their goal as of a greater significance, "Our goal is
to create good within Second Life for the world to thrive from—because
it is possible. We have been doing it, and we want to continue doing
it, but we won't be able to if we become homeless—we would have
neither the energy or the base to go from."

Centaur concluded the session with the haunting words, "You are our
last hope. If you can't help us, then I'm afraid to say we are truly
lost."

Sadness and realisation

You know tonight I was taking pictures for Mami Jewels' new releases coming out this week and it suddenly struck me; we could very soon lose our little piece of paradise.
I love Caprona and its just so unfair!
We rarely use all the prims we are allowed here, maybe the exception to that is when James and I got married and at that time I can understand we may have put a strain on the server for an hour or so but is that unusual? Aren't all servers going to be strained occasionally? Anyway only 4 avatars are usually on our island and then rarely for any length of time or all at the same time, so why should we be punished for the 'light' use of our retreat?

I truly feel saddened at the way Linden Lab are treating their residents, the people who have found happiness in their secondlives and are now having it ripped from them in such an unjust way.

For my part I am losing faith in LL and to show my disappointment I will no longer be doing business with the Lindex - why should I give them a penny after the way they have treated every one of us. Most of the decisions LL has made of late I may not have liked but I have always been able to keep my distance and sometimes even see both points of view but, in this, LL has pushed me too far.

I recommend if you are not going to use the Lindex, like myself, then you make sure you use a reputable exchange instead like the ones on either ACE-Exchange or Xstreet(formally sl-exchange). I know there are others but I personally do not know of them please feel free to add a link (in the comments) to any reputable exchanges you have used in the past.

As a reporter and editor of this newspaper I have always tried to remain impartial while still being true to myself, but, in this issue I have failed and am not afraid to say so. Many of my friends are talking of leaving SL and many others are selling their land and downgrading their accounts. While nothing is set in stone yet, according to Jack Linden, and there is a spark of hope left that LL may reconsider or find a compromise I will wait as many others will do - just don't wait to long Linden Lab to make some sort of decision or you may find yourself with a world empty of content creators and supporters.

Dana Vanmoer

(dress 'nicole' by Styles of Edo - to be released this week)