SL-newspaper hunt winner Callie Blackburn with CEO Dana Vanmoer
Thank you all who came to share our 3 Year Anniversary Bash
Showing posts with label dana vanmoer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dana vanmoer. Show all posts
Fairyteller, A place you can feel the magic of SL,
Did you ever want to live in a place that is so beautiful that your friends catch their breath everytime they land?Maybe you are just looking for something a little different or to recapture part of your childhood?
Not long ago BNT estate manager, Duchess Shepherd, approached me with the idea of creating a fairytale sim and I loved the opportunity to let our imaginations run wild! The result is beautiful but it has to be seen to be appreciated, no pictures could ever do it justice.
Fairyteller has a calm magical atmosphere
with its purple mountains and rolling hills.
The 15 plots are all completely different offering a high degree of privacy and something for everyone - just to give you an idea you will find Beauty and the Beasts castle, Jack and the beanstalk, Camelot, Squirrel Nutkin, 1001 nights, Captain hooks hideout even the Garden of Eden to name just a few.Visit the magic and if you are interested in living here contact Duchess Shepherd or Madelena BNT for more details.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fairyteller/128/128/2
Dana Vanmoer
Fox Reports, an SL innovation
Every now and then I find something new I wish more people knew about and utilised.My association with Skybeam and its close knit community has given me, personally, a lot of great times in SL and not long ago I was visiting with Nevar (Lobo) when there was a griefing problem at the sandbox, not unusual in popular sandboxes, which Nevar as estate manager needed to deal with. I went to see if I could help and ended up becoming what Skybeam calls a Guardian, someone who helps to keep the peace and make sure things run smoothly.
What has this got to do with innovation? My introduction to Guardianship also introduced me to Fox Reports :
Fox Reports began as a monitoring system for SkyBeam Sandbox. It was used to be able to file notes and reports about various people who caused mischief or broke the rules with repeated infractions leading to land or estate banning as appropriate, with the ability for all of the sandbox 'guardians' to have access to each others' reports. The system has a number of features geared towards making this information easily accessible by all admins without having the installation or trust network issues incurred with something like banlink.I spoke to Fox Reports creator Erix Oh:
Dana Vanmoer: What made you first think of the idea of fox reports?
EriX Oh: The main idea was, because I wanted to "report" to Charlene (Trudeau) the incidents, so she could look when she wanted ... later on, I added multi-user support, then E-Mailing and so on and also a common reporting-system... to stop everyone asking... "hey, do you've a note about
... and then I had the idea to connect the SL's Estate system to the page, and ask Char (Charlene Trudeau) to put some sims "at risk" (as such a system never existed, nor was the library complete)
Dana Vanmoer: So it started a simple database of incidents and bannings, a way to keep records?
Dana Vanmoer: What are the main advantages to using this rather than the normal estate tools?
EriX Oh: The main advantage is that you control your estate from everywhere where you've internet access... if you get an IM-to-EMail requesting a ban, you can execute it, not even logging into SL... (example from work, or in the train, if a long trip) the system is tested on PS3, Nintendo DS, iPhone/iPod touch ... e.t.c.
Dana Vanmoer: It sounds like a great advantage for any estate, where else would you say it would suited for?
EriX Oh: Generally, the estates function works only on private Sims, where they need to put my bot (and me) as EM ... it does not work on mainland owned sims, or simple land-owners, I could see it also being useful to places that have a gateway to SL or sandboxes.
EriX Oh: for these places, it is useful ... since the system allows more than 10 "EMs" (Estate Managers) .. and works even when the sim is a bit laggy, since the bot does not download textures and such.
Dana Vanmoer: How easy is the system to set up?
EriX Oh: It's in fact easy to setup... since you're not involved in the tech facts... you simply request it.. (using my support-page).. pay for it.. and I set it up... with your favourite URL ..like
Dana Vanmoer: Is there anything you would like people to know about that I haven't asked?
EriX Oh: If SL's having problems (example login problems, TP problems) my bot can be affected too, only estate-related functionalities will not work - the reporting, will continue to work.
EriX Oh: and ... ! LindenLab does not have access to it, so - if an Abuse report needs to be filed.. you need to do that separately
Dana Vanmoer: For an estate can you tell me how much it would cost every week?
EriX Oh: For one estate & reports ... it will be 3000L$/week (three thousand) ... - the price list can be found on http://foxreports.lu/prices.php
I also spoke with Charlene Trudeau, Skybeams' owner and Nevar Lobo, one of the estate managers, and asked what they thought of the system:
Dana Vanmoer: What would you say is the biggest advantage of using the system?
Charlene Trudeau: For me, its the communication between administrators and being able to extend past the ten estate manager limit for estate wide kick/ban.
Nevar Lobo: For me as an estate manager, being able to restart sims , ban people and look back at past warnings.. so it gives me more flexibility around the estates . I don't have to be at one region on a constants basis .. i can get more work done instead of keep running back and forth for sim restarts.
One other advantage of the system is ... if you have multiple estates that you own .. regions under the same brand but on different estates .. you can include them all on the same system .. so if i have a problem on one of the homesteads and I'm on say our Zeppelinhiem Sim.. (which is over at Caledon) i can take care of a restart or issue from where i am .
Dana Vanmoer: Are there any downsides to the system?
Charlene Trudeau: That's an interesting question. I suppose that would depend on perspective. From mine, no, others might prefer the option to purchase the system one time they could install on their own and run, but that would be more headache for me than a recurring fee where its someone elses headache and I can simply use it.
Dana Vanmoer: How difficult is the system to use?
Nevar Lobo: The system is user friendly. There is forum you can use to ask questions... the forms you fill out for the warnings and such are easy to fill out.. and you can get any reports sent to your email so if you as a owner are not around when something happens you can see any report and /or pictures of the problem
Charlene Trudeau: Very. There a couple of things that maybe aren't the most intuitive but once you have been through it once, its very easy to follow.
Dana Vanmoer: What other advantages does using the system have over an entire estate?
Charlene Trudeau: You can get 'on the fly' maps of the parcels on any region, including who shows as current owner (group or individual), it also shows the for sale info, if any. Its helpful when you're trying to reconcile things, esp if you're like me and change things around on the fly as needed, you can also get snapshots of the sim statistics remotely, in case you need to judge whether that remote restart really needs to be done or not.
Oh, and one bit of extreme awesomeness for handling ban lists, you can sort it by date on the website and check off any you want to purge and clear them all with one button press from there. Within the normal estate tools, you have no way of knowing which is oldest, they are in alpha order, and trying to purge is a guessing game if you run out of space.
Dana Vanmoer: Skybeam does get griefing due to the sandbox - do you feel more confident about running a sandbox now you have this system in place?
Charlene Trudeau: oh yes, it makes it so much easier, we try to use a tiered level of warnings and bans for example, someone who violates the no vehicles policy, should be talked to and warned if they persist past three warnings, then ban.
By using the system, guardian 1 knows that guardian 3 already warned this guy and that he or she is issuing a second warning, not a first, without the system, we wouldn't know that and if someone comes back and says 'I was banned and there's no reason' we can look up and say well we have the following documentation (usually including pictures where applicable) of you doing this and this and that's why you were banned or 'gee, we don't have a record of banning you, let me correct that' because we are human and do make mistakes too :)
I see a lot of new ideas but this one is tried and tested and has been in operation for about 2 years - I just wish more people knew about it!
Dana Vanmoer
Open the Box with Dana
You know there are certain things I hate, both in RL and SL.One recently that I have come across in SL is bullying:
bully1 [boo
l-ee] Show IPA noun, plural -lies, verb, -lied, -ly⋅ing, adjective, interjection –noun
| 1. | a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people. |
Recently I was asked to remove a sponsor because they had 'copied' another sponsor - now in this I sat on the fence and was put squarely in the middle - I could see the similarity BUT I had also seen other dresses similar - believe me I hate a copycat and any out and out copy I would have acted differently - but being in the middle and considering all involved as friends I passed it over to James who told me to do the totally neutral article which asked your opinions.
Notice I still do not name names and I won't because I disagree with 'name and shame' I believe certain people have acted badly, but that does not mean I have to do the same!
Anyway the original accuser then withdrew his sponsorship and insisted his 'students' do the same saying that I had sided with the 'copycat' - so basically I was given a choice between losing one sponsor or several - well I won't be intimidated by anyone and the newspaper will not either - we report what we see regardless of whether someone is a sponsor or not - if they do something wrong we will not shrink from reporting it.
This all happened at the beginning of the month and I was told by the accused that she had been asked to remove her store from a couple of malls and other Mall owners had pressure to put on them also to remove her from their malls - as I said bullying tactics.
This morning I received a note - again i will not name names:
Dana I must ask you to empty out your space at *** , There seems to be a conflict here with your store being here . If I allow you to remain any longer, I stand to lose 5 big stores. This is nothing personal. Its just a matter of me doing whats best for the mall, your rent terminated today july 29. If you can please remove your objects by midnite I would appreciate it. After midnite my staff will return any of your objects that remain if you are unable to come pick them up. Thank you for all your help,
Its loss is of no consequence, BUT I would ask the question - which would you rather lose 5 stores or your integrity?
I guess I am made of different stuff because I prefer to keep my integrity.
What do you think? How would you have acted? Feel free to leave your comments but remember we will be watching them and any offensive comments will be removed.
Dana
The weekend ahead.............
Wow what a lot of great events going on this weekend, if you look through the FASHION section or the EXTRA EXTRA section you will see what I mean;'SL Top Girls' looks exciting at 12pm SLT put on by Edo Tone of Styles of edo and Kay Fairey, then a little later 'Over the Rainbow' by My Precious at Phat cat's - Agnes Finney makes the most beautiful gowns and I can't wait to see what she has unleashed.
There is also the rest of SL6B to explore I think I have only managed about a quarter of it so far - there is just so much to explore and some amazing builds, and yes too many to name! Whether you like music, discussions, exploration or Art there is something for everyone and events happening all the time - check them out HERE.
But if you need more we have news of some different events in the extra extra section; art exhibits, immersive art and story telling for your inner child at TLE.
Throughout this month RFL teams are active and events are happening all over the grid find out more HERE. RFL is less than a month away and information is starting to come through about the main event - if you want to be involved keep an eye on our RFL section for news as we get it.
A busy weekend, have fun!!
Dana Vanmoer
SL6B Meet and Greet tonight 2pm SLT
Come and meet the crew at SL6B TONIGHT
JamesT and Dana will be giving out freebies and answering your questions and hopefully having some fun with your company.
Take the automated tour of newspapers past, present and future and zip around the exhibit.
We hope to see you there
Dana and JamesT
Changes
We have simplified the paper a little after listening to feedback, you will now find we have only 5 sections these are:Main news - This section will contain almost everything with the exception of -
Extra Extra - This will contain all the press releases that we think may interest you plus will continue to host the fictional columns it has always been known for.
Classifieds - This will stay as always
Red Light - For all adult themed articles, pictures and advertising
RFL in SL - this will remain only during the season and you can find any RFLinSL events listed here as well as any articles written about RFL events.
The older sections will not disappear we never delete older articles instead these sections will be available through our Archives which you can find through the left menu in main news or from the top navigation.
As always we are listening to feedback both from readers and reporters feel free to leave your comments and let us know if this makes things easier for you our readers.
Dana and James
Open the RFL Box with Dana
For anyone who has even glanced at the newspaper this week you can't fail to realise its Relay time and for those that feel we go a little over board at relay time then I apologise if you feel we are harping on one particular charity.Indeed there are many fantastic charities in SecondLife and each and every one of them does an amazing job in raising awareness and supporting people in an environment that they feel comfortable in.
I have read and heard a lot that has worried me the last few weeks, with questions about the validity of charities in SL and people asking where and how the money raised is spent, each charity is different but each should be registered and no genuine charity will mind answering those questions. If you are in doubt look for confirmation and ask questions!
There have been some huge achievements made in fundraising thanks to the hard work of the people behind the scenes and I want to once again emphasize all the people on the committees and behind the scenes at events are voluntary -they give their time and effort for no reward and more often than not they are beaten and worn by the end of it, so please please consider how much it takes to organise such huge events and give a little love to those that make it happen!
On the Flip side is the amazing enthusiasm people have shown and the positive comments on the whole of relay. I can't wait to see what the rest of relay holds make sure you check the RFLinSL section to keep up with events around the grid.
The clothing fair continues until Sunday and thats where you will usually find me around the center sim (if you can keep me from shopping) and I wanted to let you all know that the RFL vendors in each store are the ones that automatically donate to RFL a lot of the designers may contribute some or all of their profits to RFL at the end of the fair BUT they are not allowed by ACS rules to say so, to be sure to support RFL buy from the purple and white vendors in each store!
If the Relay Raiders hit 5 Million lindens by Sunday Nevar Lobo, the fairs organiser, will have to wear silks for 15 days which right now are being created especially for him by Nicky Ree! so come and join us, enjoy the live music and the shopping, buy from the vendors and help us get those totals up!
See you at the fair everyone!
Dana Vanmoer
What a week!
Actually its been pretty quiet all around, not helped by the fact so many friends have been hit by illness this week.I have spent quite a lot of time on Skybeam as they changed from winter to spring thaw and had fun rebuilding Breezes and Glitters houses, its nice to be there and actually be made to feel like part of the community even though I don't actually live there - you will often find me at their events as they tend to be at a good time for me - but what was I saying, oh yes community; I expect there are quite a lot of communities in SL now and as it grows larger there will be many more, it must be a challenge in a virtual world to try to keep a community working together, just like in RL, you will find the bad apples in the barrel but I find in any community a good core to it can help to strengthen ties and its a great way to make friends.
Coming up soon is another community project I always get involved in that of the RFL clothing fair, I have had some inside info on the plans and this year the clothing fair will be absolutely mindblowing - I can't wait. Of course you will be able to get all the up to the minute events right here and we will do our best to talk to as many involved as we can, but knowing the sheer size this time around, it will a real challenge for us and one I look forward to.
We are still looking for some new writers so if you love events in secondlife or are determined to show the world what there is in SL pick up an application from our main office HERE just drop it to me inworld.
We also love to hear your stories and experiences from newbie days through to love and heartache, these go under our reader submissions banner in the appropriate section. drop us a snapshot too with a line of text - we want to show everyone what wonders there are to see and do in secondlife and for that we need your input - SL is so large now keeping up with all the places to explore is impossible but every now and then we all find a gem worth visiting or telling others about, Bixyl and Gemma are really good at hunting those out and letting you know in the explore section, why not tell us about somewhere you have found?
Dana Vanmoer
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