I would just like to say that I am very unhappy with the decision to raise the height of ban lines within SL to two hundred metres, speaking as somebody who used to live on the mainland, attempt to plot balloon courses around the mainland and who is thus familiar with the number of people who just decide to set ban lines around their property for no good reason, which you cannot see in practice until you run into them, but which at least you could easily evade by flying a dozen or two metres upwards.
This does not serve to compensate those feeling the strain of increased Assault caused by Anonymous Registrations, as such people can simply re-register; it serves to further diminish the mainland as a space where it is possible to live.
It seems to me that those desirous of Absolute Privacy Even In Their Absence should perchance look elsewhere than a large populated world with few to no public roads and rights of way, and that those following the tenet of “I Can Do What I Want, It’s My Land” should perchance realise that they live in a World Involving Others, where one does not have absolute rights to do whatever one wants - at least morally - but in fact should negotiate and agree those rights with others when it affects them, which ban lines surely do.
I feel somewhat embarrassed about having left the mainland for Caledon, where there are certain basic standards - no ban lines, no sim-lagging casinos, no gaudy spinning advertisements - but really, if not for such an environment I would have left long ago. Embarrassed is perhaps not quite the right word… more disloyal. A “sell-out”. Honestly, though, given the choice between a peaceful and civilised environment full of interesting people, good conversation and creative outlets, and a chaotic advertisement-filled forest of ban lines… the rational choice is surely the one I made. I still feel guilty though.
That is all.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/21/a-brief-statement/trackback/
June 22, 2006 at 12:43 am
Dolus Naumova
As a resident of the air for quite a while, I should be happy with this. However, I can see your point, and, as most people reside far above 200m.
I had an idea a while back that would solve this: Using a new land tool, one could create ban zones that wouldn’t allow anyone on the ban list to enter. Problem solved.
June 22, 2006 at 10:48 am
ordinal.malaprop
I certainly have no issue with the idea of people explicitly banned being excluded from greater altitudes than previously; that seems a good idea (and also that such people\’s objects should be excluded as well though that is not such a simple matter I imagine).
I believe that I will write another post elaborating on this one.
June 22, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Mambo Milosz
Well, if I were you (which I’m not, honestly!) then I would feel neither embarrassed nor disloyal. The world is by necessity an experiment, and in such an environment part of the pleasure is surely seeing how people sort themselves out; and with whom they choose to consort. Private islands like Caledon, Neualtenberg and Rosario are simply one more stage in the growth of the experiment. Maybe one day they will also reveal unexpected flaws and the deck of cards will be shuffled one more time.
June 23, 2006 at 12:15 am
qarl
hear hear.
yet another TERRIBLE decision to come out of LL. perhaps the next step is to cut the mainland into a thousand disconnected islands. or better still - make each parcel it’s own virtual sim - so no one need have neighbors ever again.
i, like Ordinal, have a strong affection for the mainland. i’m sad to see another nail in its coffin. :(
K.
June 24, 2006 at 9:07 pm
ordinal.malaprop
Mambo: yes, this whole thing is an experiment, nobody has ever done anything like this before and one cannot necessarily expect it to end up well.
I have to say though that it is not a hands-off, petri-dish, “set things up and see what happens” sort of experiment. The parameters are constantly being changed with a goal in mind. This latest event is an example of that, and I think a hamfisted one. (It will of course be changing back very soon.)
Complaining and discussing the changes is part of the experiment itself; the experimenters are participants, they just have different goals and powers. There is also that it is not an experiment free of ethical consequence - people do attach importance to their experiences in SL, and become happy or sad based on them.
I am a fairly flexible sort of person in terms of my environment, and I think that island communities will be increasingly the way of the future, and I’ve moved to one, but I still think that mass collaboration is an intrinsically positive thing, so I will be trying to push for that as much as possible. One thing that interests me is the idea of diplomacy between island states, for instance, the “embassy” idea, and economic relations.
Incidentally I really must catch up on how Rosario is doing.