The Greenies Problem
I know this is old news but I feel like I had to write about this. A while ago on Podmafia we explored the Greenies sim which is an amazing build that all newbies and oldies should see. However they are now charging for entry into the sim, which in my opinion sucks.
OK L$99 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but to a newbie that’s like L$1,000,000. When a newbie joins Second Life it can be a daunting experience and I think it is important to let them know about the good stuff quick so they can understand what is cool and possible about the virtual world.
What I’m trying to say is that Second Life builds when its a public place that you want people to visit should not be blocked off at all. The only times something should really be blocked off is a residential area or if someone has been banned.
When you think about the Internet you get websites that need to be paid to gain entries to certain areas, most of which never really work out well. Second Life is entirely the same, people expect to visit somewhere and be able to explore it for free. Sure there’s a cost attached to it for the service provider but they can make money other ways like Donation kiosks that can help facilitate the venue or merchandise.
I’m sure that Rezzable is making some money from the Greenies but to be honest I think they are already successful enough to not need to offer a charge for admission. I’m sure events like the Hair Fair make them money and the Greenies has always seemed to me like a good promotion of what Rezzable does.
Basically, charging for admission in my mind is a stupid idea and if people start copying the idea then it will negatively impact Second Life.
I am sure most of what I said has been said before but I don’t care because this is my opinion that has been badly written. Also thanks to Dakota Blackmountain for pointing out a typo 
What the Plurk?
Since Yxes wrote a post about Plurk…I will too.
Plurk is a Twitter-like webapp that in my opinion is brilliant. Why do I like Plurk so much that I have mentioned it on Podmafia two times and blogging about it now? It’s because Plurk is simply better than Twitter.
To me Twitter is a chaotic mess that you can’t really catchup on without going through pages and pages of tweets and adding people more and more to see what was replied to and by who. Not to mention that it is intertwined with the Fail Whale.
Plurk makes it easier for me to catchup on what’s been happening with people and also to read the threads of conversations. It also seems to be a good way of getting traffic fast. Case and Point, Yesterday I was flying around Second Life when I got an IM asking if I wanted to try out the PlurkHUD. Since I am a sucker for BETA I tried it out and gave my location away with the tool. Then GoSpeed turned up and GoSpeed told people where she was. After a while a whole crowd of people came and was just having fun and while Plurk is currently small in size of community it is seemingly quicker to get traffic.
Am I a plurk fanboy? Yes. Do I think people should leave Twitter. Yes. Will it happen. I don’t know.
But if you want to add me…well add me!
SLPN’s next phase!
OK. Live Podcasts. I have already talked about this on the SLPN’s blog about us moving to live podcasts. Well as of this week we shall move to the live podcasting aspect that I have been intrested in doing.
So how is this going to work?
Well certainly not with video, at least for now. My approach is to do it with audio in a radio enviroment because it is easier to stream for some people who have lower bandwith. Also it’s what I know best. And as much as I like a challenge I prefer doing it in audio for now. It’s live because we will record it in front a live audience and as we move on, we will get the video in the mix as well.
So the week begins most likely on Tuesday with a new show called “The Warf Show” which I will be doing on KONA radio which will replace the Podmafia Re-Broadcast. With Podmafia being a podcast, there isn’t much sense to rebroadcast it I think. It might be this week or next week though. But I will be recording it for podcast purposes.
Then there is MetaNews Weekly which WILL happen this Wednesday at Nowhereville at 9AM SLT. 9AM SLT is 5PM for all the UK folks so that will be a fun little challenge. The hosts of that show are Malburns Writer and Tara Yeats in-world.
There is a SLPN Live group that I have set up for people who want updates for when shows are happening and such like. The group is not the only solution. We also have a Subscribe-o-Matic board for all those updates as well so if you DON’T want to waste one of your precious groups, well your not left behind.
Who needs to login anyway?
OK, We all know it. The logins were broked for an extensive period of time and yes it did indeed suck. However it wasn’t a problem too much for me (personally). A lot of my friends will know that I am indeed a Dr Who fanatic. Infact my avatar is not of Human based origin BUT a Time Lord (but that doesn’t really matter).
The point is that last night, Dr Who returned and with other things like YouTube the grid downtime did not affect me. However I shall now write some of my top tips for downtime.
1. Download Podcasts!
You don’t need an iPod to listen to any podcasts. All you need is something that plays .mp3 files and IF you don’t have one of those then you don’t have a computer that can run Second Life’s client. A lot of great audio podcasts can be found at http://slpodcast.net and no that is not just a plug. I’ve had people come up to me and say they listen to the shows at work/in-world/car etc. The point is there is some great discussions there for everyone. However if you like the idea of TV there is all those great video shows over at SLCN such as Tonight Live (which i am watching streamed live right now as I right this).
2. Read…
Another thing I was meaning to do was get through all my RSS feeds and stuff. If you like to read internet content but don’t like the hassle of entering in all those URLs there is a better way. Use a webapp called Google Reader. I use it personally and love it. What I do is tag all the blogs into certain categories like say “Second Life” or “Tech News” and as soon as a new entry is up it displays on my window to read. This helps me get up to date on all the news so I can find all the good content about things. That’s one of the things I do with podcasts. Go through all the junk and podcast it in a entertaining way if possible.
3. Get Away from that computer…seriously
Sure you need your SL fix but just step away from that monitor and get some of that good ol’ fresh air. I personally try to do a hell of a lot more these days because even though I am young…I really need to start getting out more. A lot of the time when nothings happening in the feeds or in SL for me, I just sit around. One thing I have been trying to commit more to is walking around. The area I live in is a village so theres some good scenery. What I do is A) Get my podcasts synced… B) Grab my dogs leash C) Go Walking…
I read somewhere that we as humans are naturally lazy and being the climate today we just become victims to it…
Theres a few things for some avatars to do while the grid is down and being broken. Also I mentioned in section 1 that I was watching Paisley Beebe. Well as i still write this the show hasn’t really started yet because of all those SL problems. If Linden Lab™ is wanting to make sure that it’s product is to succeed in the future they need to tackle the problems now. I predicted earlier this year (i’m sure I said this on The Podmafia Podcast) that this year was going to be the year when the Linden Lab™ was going to try and sort out all of the problems with lag such by rolling out things like Havok4 and Mono. Right now they are at the deployment phase. The next task is refining those tools in the real enviroment of the grid and getting to all work. At least thats what I think they are doing
My thoughts on the whole trademark issue
I haven’t really posted up my thoughts on the whole trademark issue with the whole inSL™ thing. Sure I have podcasted about it (Podmafia Podcast Episode 41 with Crap Mariner) but that was before the clarification was released on April Fools Day (good timing LL).
So, I personally haven’t changed a thing to the StuartWarf.com blog as of yet even though a clarification was released because I am lazy and quite frankly annoyed since I have to go through 300ish posts to check.
As for SLPN (SL Podcast Network) We have changed a few things around like the Second Life Newscast will be changed to MetaNews Weekly (some other cool stuff about that will be happening real soon. I just need to finish some things off) and have submitted the site for the inSL™ on Tuesday. So far they haven’t sent me an email back saying “We don’t like some of the stuff you have, can you change it please etc.)
Personally I don’t think the lindens will sue the bloggers and podcasters because we are probably their biggest promoters. But business that clearly infringe on the Second Life virtual world will need to either change what they are doing quickly or probably face a Cease and Desist letter.
I think the bloggers need to stop worrying because I really doubt they are a threat to the trademarks and all that legal jazz that Linden Research® owns.
Podcasting History
When I joined Second Life in May 2006, a large factor of my life revolved around the podcasting community. Along my journey in Second Life, I have had the pleasure of doing many podcasts. Alot of them went podfade (that means the podcast just shut down and died). Others continue to live on….for now. This page will document every podcast I have done with a brief description of those shows.
Current Podcasts
The Podmafia Podcast
The Podmafia Podcast is a weekly audio adventure with myself, Gomem Desoto and Yxes Delacroix. With varying topics such at the latest stuff coming to Second Life, shopping and many many other topics. Each week I record a show with these awesome co-hosts is amazing and makes me feel all happy and stuff.
Building with Warf
This is the first ever video podcast that I have ever done! Building with Warf takes a unusual change to the way I do podcasts. I am for once teaching people something. In this podcast I teach people how to build in Second Life so that hopefully they can avoid the mishaps that many builds can be produced in Second Life and maybe, one day, people can start making a living in Second Life from skills they have learnt from me.
Podfaded Podcast History
The Weekly Warf Show
A short lived attempt at a podcast about my virtual life. I quickly figured out that The Weekly Warf show would not work because who wants to know about some guy’s life. One thing that I have learnt about Second Life podcasts is that most of them are hard to do without a gang to do the show like Podmafia or Going Broke with Daphne and Tamara.
Psichonico’s Daily Podcast
This podcast was supposedly daily but it was more of a twice a week thing. A lot of it was a sort of secret parody of Daily Source Code (and eventually The Gomem Show). Most music-casters listen to the music and choose something good. I mostly would choose something randomly and very rarely would stop the madness. It was a bit like The Weekly Warf show where I quickly lost the will to do it but Gomem and his “podfade” comments somehow spurred me to do about 30 more episodes than I wanted to.
It had a very stubborn death…
Inside the Boxes
This is the first ever podcast that I ever decided to do. It started up in March 2006 when I first got a microphone and wanted to do a podcast. The show was based on the TV game show Deal or no Deal. Sadly the community I was creating it to had no clue about what podcasting is or was. So such a podcast was bound to tank.
The Ten Cast
The Ten Cast was a weekly technology news podcast in which I discuss the latest techology news in the world. Since I am a big geek I love technology and all the stuff that it creates. You can still listen to the show at PodcasterNews.com if you want to listen to the show.
No Longer Contributing To
MetaNews Weekly
In it’s short history MetaNews Weekly is a podcast revolved around the news of the metaverse. Originally hosted by myself and Gomem Desoto. After 3 episodes we decided to hand over the keys to Mal Burns and Tara Yeats. The show is currently on Hiatus until my machine returns and will then return in a Live Streaming format
Appearances
Night Guy Episode 45
Guy David, host of the Night Guy podcast, invited me on to his show for the first of three episodes called “The Podmafia Chronicles”. We talked about some of the stuff that I was doing and also was the final podcast that I used a headset on since it pretty much died in the recording.
SL Under the Radar Episode 24
In this episode of SL Under the Radar, Radar invited me to talk about SLPN. I decided to do reverse psychology on the listeners to trick them in to thinking why the network was bad and make them visit in order to wonder why it was so bad…
I think it worked…
SL Under the Radar Episode 33
It was a week of change for me, I was working on moving SLPN to a new server and moving SLPN’s HQ from Nowhereville to Podcast Island and stuff. In the week I was asked by Radar if I wanted to be in a short interview and I accepted. I gave views on the SL podcasting scene but mostly the story of my Second Life.
The Black Tie Martini Club - A Cleveland Yankee in King Razzaps Court Over The Rainbow
In this episode of The Black Tie Martini Club Oddcast Caleb invited me to play a few roles. OK so i butchered it all up and could have done better but…I tried to make myself sound clear…and I think I was ill at the time…It was December after all…
Crap Mariner’s marathon of many many chats…
For some reason, Crap Mariner/Laurence Simon invited many people to chill and have a chat with him in the time limit of 15 minutes. I was first up in the episode and pretty much everyone was better than me but ah well. I advise you go listen to it if you want to have 5 hours of torture. It has an important message at the end i thought…
iPodjacker Episode Seven - Stuart Warf
Crap Mariner launched a new podcast called iPodjacker. It was launched when SL5B came around and he wanted a chance to talk to podcasters who have been involved with Second Life. I was glad to participate in this podcast. The series also features interviews with people like Wiz Nordberg, Rich Desoto and other great SL talents.
The New Search Engine
The new Google - Powered search has now been implemented into the official Second Life viewer. I have to admit I’m starting to like this search engine implementation. One thing that may be cool is that at the bottom of each page is a URL which can be viewed in a browser, this can be great for showing locations and items in Second Life and give details on sims. Useful for those who could be listening to a podcast and want to find out more about a place.
VAT comes to EU Second Lifers
Hello, Stuart Warf.
We have identified that you reside in a European country. Accordingly, your next bill will reflect Value Added Tax (VAT) charged at the rate specified by your country. Please note that VAT applies to all payments to Linden Lab such as land sales, monthly maintenance fees and Premium subscription fees.
Another reason to use a FREE account and not pay Lindex for me. VAT is 17.5% here, thats why things cost so much more in the UK.
Poor Gomem?
In some form of shocking news, if you can call it that, Gomem exploded over in Los Arboles and almost ruined my clothing along with several others…He made a complete recovery in a record time of 1 minute.
Gambling Exodus
Since July 25th 2007 when gambling became illegal completely in Second Life, a lot of owners instantly logged in after hearing the news instantly shutting down casino’s and other general items that could constitute as gambling within Second Life such as Take it or Leave it, Slingo and Sploders. However i did a little digging around today, not too deep and discovered two locations within 10 minutes that still have machines for gambling. They both were in skyboxes (perhaps they feel that Linden Lab won’t look in the skyboxes?). Here are some images of the hunt.
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Plurk
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Hostgator
