VW Review™

So, the SL bloggers are all on strike in protest of SL’s newest policies on branding. Uh, sure you really want to do that? At least that’s what I was thinking when I heard the prosecution planned to have O.J. Simpson ‘wear the glove’. It’s too easy to fake it not fitting.

It’s almost the same with the blogger strike.

Here’s the deal: many of the bloggers who focus on Second Life are complaining about Linden Lab’s new branding policies. The main gist is according to Linden Lab, you aren’t allowed to use the words Second Life without the ‘registered trademark’ symbol, commonly shown as a circle-R: “®”.

The same with other marks Linden Lab lays claim to, specifically “inSL” being a trademarked term. Linden Lab also claims the initials “SL” also is a trademarked term. Personally, I disagree and simply refuse to put any marks next to a pair of initials.

So the bloggers are up in arms against Linden Lab because they have given 90-days for any corrections to be made. So, in ‘protest’, these bloggers are going on strike for a couple weeks or so.

Not a good idea.

By the way, they are all totally mistaken anyway. But that’s for another article, another time.

First, I’m not entirely sure Linden Lab really cares and if they did, I would wish they didn’t. If I were Linden lab I wouldn’t care. Most of the bloggers choose to find issues with the Second Life Grid or other problems and use their blogs more for criticism than anything else. Their going on ’strike’ is really just a reprieve from all that.

Secondly, they often complain about how Linden Lab ignores and is not taking care of it’s customers. How terrible it is that the customers aren’t getting support or appropriate feedback. How the customers are not getting what they pay for (90% of them pay nothing).

Uh… isn’t going on strike and not posting anything for two week doing the very same thing you accuse Linden lab of doing? Not providing your product to your consumers? In truth, you aren’t having any impact on Linden Lab at all. You are having an impact on your consumers – the people who read your posts every day. Duh.

Third is this: the reason for the strike is supposedly so Linden Lab will feel the ‘pain’ of their absence. Because, after all, it is all our blogs that feature content in and about Second Life that drives people to the service. We all are grandly influential, you see. And if we stop posting articles, then your new customer sources will dry-up, Linden Lab.

Never-mind we all complain about there being too many people in SL to begin with. We want our cake and to eat it, too.

Unfortunately, this is a simple bluff and though it likely won’t ‘backfire’, the truth is there will be no impact. LL is unlikely to feel the slightest ground shake. They won’t even notice. And neither will anyone else. Except the very readers of those blogs who won’t be seeing any new content until their authors return.

Good. It give us smaller ‘wannabe’ bloggers a chance for a little exposure, maybe. I’ll take that.

The point being this: first, all you bloggers (myself included) are nowhere near as influential as you think you might be. We all are nothing more than self-important, opinionated vocalists, usually with an agenda.

meh.

Hell, if there’s more than a couple of you who find even one in a few of my ranting even somewhat interesting, I’m happy.

As you can see about this blog – look around: no Google words, no ancillary junk along the borders, no plugs for this or that, or banner ads… nothing here to support this blog or myself in terms of generating any revenue. (I hope you click the link to my in-world store or OnRez pages and buy stuff from me for that).

I do this because I enjoy it. So, as all those ‘professional’ bloggers take a bit of a vacation, I hope I can keep you from yawning. Too much, anyway.

For additional perspective from someone else who looks at all this from pretty much the same angle as I do, have a look at Sophrosyne Stenvaag’s article called “Silence=Death” on her blog (Finding Sophrosyne.) Sending you there keeps me from writing such a long post that your eyes glass over – Her words feel like a continuation as I feel the same way she does):

“Let’s have a little realism about the nature of power, please? The commercial blogs – New World Notes, Massively and their ilk – aren’t striking. The rest of them – fashionistas, SLebrities, microbusiness promotional blogs and personal journals – don’t contribute any measurable amount to Linden Lab’s revenues or to its ever more tattered reputation.

“Linden Lab has been overreaching, deaf to its customers at best and actively hostile to them (Robin Linden and identity “trust,” anyone?). They deserve to be called out, to be pressed to change. Second Life Residents and users should be informed of Linden Lab’s actions and encouraged to take action. Our grievances are legitimate, and we should do something about them.”

Finding Sophrosyne – SILENCE = DEATH

Tags: Secondlife, Socially Mundane, Linden Lab