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 
SpaceNavigator Arrives!
OK, Yesterday I ordered a SpaceNavigator from Dabs.com. I decided to choose the cheapest delivery option for the delivery. This morning I wake up and find that a box had arrived for me. So here is some unboxing photos
So far I have been amazed with this little mouse wonder. Why did it take me so long to order one of these? Seriously it is a great toy to have and the best part is that it really intuitive to use. I’ll continue playing with it and give it an early review on tomorrows Podmafia Podcast.
Biography
Currently…
I am Stuart Warf. An avatar who was born on the 2nd of May 2006 in Second Life. My avatar is an evil timelord who’s TARDIS was left stranded in this world remaining in the current timeline until I can escape this virtual world (In case you don’t know, Heres a Doctor Who Wikipedia Page). My hobbies include Physical Prim tricks, building and podcasting. I currently live at Podcast Island where the SLPN Studios lie.
A Brief History of Stuart Warf
I originally joined Second Life in 2006 when alot of the podcasting community discovered Second Life and thought that it had amazing potential, which they were correct but failed to see it and left when the eighties has-been left. During 2006 I, along with Gomem Desoto, formed a group called The Podmafia (the actual group name is The Pod Mafia), which later in August - September had 5 episodes of a podcast called The Podmafia Podcast, which originally was aimed at going around places in Second Life and teaching the masses about podcasting.
Then came 2007. In the early beginning I was partnered but that soon ended. So became my life of living. For a month I resided in SoHo, but for some reason I just didn’t like renting there. So I left but still hung out to see the crazy and wacky stuff going on there. It was around this time when I temporarily brought back The Podmafia Podcast for 3 episodes. Then came Life, Living in Nowhereville. From around March until August I rented land under Madison Carnot while hosting the Take it or Leave it at Nowhereville. This however stopped for me when Take it or Leave it ended. But that was short lived when Crap Mariner injected new life into Nowhereville shortly after the Second Life Woodstock event that took place in the Five Islands. During August Podmafia Podcast came back after troubled times and stayed strong with Yxes Delacroix as host. I re-rented at Nowhereville under Crap Mariner and continued to live there.
So in comes 2008, When I launched SLPN, a network dedicated to podcasts for the metaverse. During the year I continued to work on SLPN by bringing in new shows and new challenges such as live podcasting in Second Life. Up until July 2008 I had continued to live at Nowhereville. However after some thinking and a polite request I decided to leave Nowhereville and move to Podcast Island…
That’s the story so far…
Last Updated on the 18th of July 2008
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!
Mobile Second Life
So, a while ago a company called Vollee announced that they were working on a mobile version of Second Life that works over 3G. Now I would try it out but my phone (the Skypephone on the ‘3′ network) is likely not up to the job for it.
But I hear that they are working on a version for the iPhone. Now, my assumption is that if it will work for the iPhone…then it will work for the iPod touch. I would pay for that app for sure because I would love to just log onto Second Life on my iPod.
We will most likely talk about it for the 50th episode of Podmafia.
How do you solve a problem like Podmafia 50?
Hey Guys
I am currently in the process of uploading Podmafia Podcast Episode 49 and I have just started to think…
WHAT THE HELL ARE WE ACTUALLY GONNA DO FOR EPISODE 50?
So… I decided to throw something up on the blog and see if anything comes of it…
Here are a couple of ideas for shows we could do…
- Top 5 Moments of Podmafia 1-50
- A show where we reminisce on the past
- Same old show
I am quite drawn to the whole Top 5 moments…but what exactly are the top 5 moments of the podcast.
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.
The Rosedale Discussion
So, alot of you have probably heard that Mr God, Phillip Linden (Rosedale) is stepping down as the CEO of Linden Lab. Well this called for a super special edition of Podmafia Podcast Live on Talkshoe for today. The show may last 2 hours so I have arranged it to be a 2 hour show.
If you are not on Talkshoe, please sign up so you can enter the chat and even talk about it.
Details
Time = 7PM SLT / 10PM EST / 2AM GMT
Location = http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=73500
KONA Radio may also stream the show in world, we have to work on that though…
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