This post has been removed.

Well obviously not removed cos it’s still here. But this post isn’t what it was anymore.

I was really affected by a comment (which is still below) which pointed out how bitter word battles just end up making the blogs trashy – although  the commenter put it bit more nicely than that lol! And as much I maintain my stance on everything I have said, this is now a post that ranks in search engines (as of 31st August) within the top 5 for searches around the name of the individual it was about. I have changed this title and content and those rankings should soon disappear. I can’t deny that I carried out work to make it rank. Immediately after posting and in my anger about the things she was saying about my RL r/ship, I schedules an article with a backlink to this post under the appropriate anchor text, to distribute to a number of article sites. I don’t deny it. I deliberately made it rank. And now, with a much calmer outlook, I am deliberately making it ‘unrank’.

Granted, it’s not a massively searched keyword according to Google’s data. Not at all. But the point is that the few people who do search that are looking for information about that individual and while I maintain everything that was posted here was the truth, I have no right to force my drama down the throats of people just looking for a bio or some info about someone.

What one of the commenters below pointed out is that this blog isn’t supposed to be about drama. And I absolutely concur with that point. Posting drama really does make people who come here for lighthearted fun (which is what the blog is supposed to be about) feel uncomfortable. So I made the decision to remove the stuff that was in this post, change its meta title and change, in turn, the sour mood that’s been hanging over Pixel Scoop.

I have no interest in even a civilized friendship or acquaintance-ship (is that even a word?) with that individual but, as the commenter below said (something that really struck a chord with me) there’s dignity in silence. In my ideal world what I would get from her is silence and she the same from me.

She can continue to lie about me if she likes and that’s all fine. The only people who matter are wise enough to know that it’s a tabloid version of events!! But I feel an entire sense of a weight shifting by removing this and being done with drama and hideousness.

So I apologise to the people who read Pixel Scoop purely for light hearted entertainment, for the heavy and sour note that plagued the blog over the last few days. I also apologise to the friends who had to put up with my bitching like a teenage girl the past couple of days and I apologise to my beautiful girlfriend for having to show her every bit of correspondence/blog post etc between the said individual and myself (just to justify my actions). She didn’t particularly care to see the stuff and like she said, “Childish and really lacks perspective.”

We’re all change and moving into much more fun territory

I’m drawing inspiration from the quotes of friends, family and famous:

Gf: “In the grand scheme of things, what does this all matter? It doesn’t affect me and you, it doesn’t affect your son and it doesn’t make an iota of difference to anyone who cares about you. Let it go.”
Sister: “Grudges only ever end in tears.”
Best friend: “Fight fire with fire and you’re gonna end up accused of arson, mate. Don’t fight fire at all… run as quick as you f***ing can out the door and get away from it.”
Dr. Seuss: “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
William H. Walton: “To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.”
Jill Niedzwiecki: The High Road can be a lonely place, but the smooth ride and the beautiful view are much more satisfying.”

Can you really be in love with someone without ever meeting them?

That’s a question that myself and some friends were debating earlier on after one of my buddies declared his love for someone he met online and hasn’t met in person yet.

There were all sorts of opinions on it, of course. But it ties in quite nicely to Second Life and virtual world dating in general I suppose.

I have had 2 longer term “relationships” in Second Life as many of you know. And in both cases I cared deeply for the woman involved. In one case I thought I was in love.

Perhaps that’s they key: “thought.”

I’ve been talking to a couple I know who met in SL, then met in RL a whole 2 years later! They just got engaged in RL. When they had their SL wedding they talked about how in love they were. But now when you ask them, they say they were mistaken and that they weren’t really in love until some time after they had met.

So here’s a question for the psychologists or even just an issue for debate. Can you be in love with someone you meet in a virtual world without ever meeting them in person?

My answer: NO.

I believe:-

- You can care for someone deeply.
- You can develop a platonic love
- You can’t fall “in love” with that person though.

I think people fall in love with characters or with a fantasy or even with a hope.

That, for me, isn’t real love.

Maybe that’s how some married people are successfully able to separate SL and RL relationships (not that I believe that is acceptable – absolutely not).

When you are involved in something so intense, in an environment where you can date on the stars, or dance in the sky, visit space or picnic in castles every single day, it’s easy to get carried away. And it does feel real. It doesn’t stop when you turn the computer off, for example. But until you meet someone and experience “real world” dating and a “real” relationship (yes, including the physical) I don’t think you can really be in love with the person behind the avatar.

It took me a long time to learn that, largely because until you distance yourself from certain feelings or situations or move on to something “real life,” it’s impossible to find a comparison or to assess it objectively.

I believe people can meet in virtual worlds and go on to have successful RL marriages. I just honestly don’t believe “being in love” can happen without meeting someone in person first.

But anyhoooo, that is my opinion.

Yours?

It’s another Second Life freebie…. because… erm, well… I like putting this s**t together.

Anyway… this time it’s bubble chairs and, as ever, you can find them in my little second life freebies place, here.

Ciao!

16 year olds in Second Life? And without breaking the rules.

What the f**k?

There are already enough minors on the main grid without making it acceptable for 16 year olds to be on the grid and within the ToS.

Now let me add, I honestly believe that these younger SL-ers have a great potential creative value to add to the platform. I’ve maintained for a long time that teen players should have a way to sell their items to the main grid, potentially through XStreet. But it’s not a safe environment for people of this age.

And bullshit with the whole “well they won’t have access to adult regions,” business, You only have to look around the PG regions to see that not all adult material is restricted to Zindra. There’s just no logic in opening the door to this hazard.

SL is full of some amazing creatives and some great artistic and educational opportunity. But as much as we love our virtual world, we all know it’s also home to some more sinister characters.

Would I want my 16 year old in SL? No frikkin’ way. No more than I would want them in a nightclub or bar in real life.

[UPDATE: ALL FREEBIES ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN WORLD AT MY NEW LITTLE FREEBIE STORE THINGIE HERE: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Freedom%20Shores/235/79/897

Evidently, I’ve had too much time on my hands this weekend and I’ve been doing a little building again. So here it is, for free, for you.

Studio Loft Skybox

It comes complete with:-

- Fireplace
- Reading Rug

Footprint: 20m x 20m

Get it in world here.

Permissions: Copy, modify, no transfer.

FAQs:
——

CAN I HAVE A TRANSFER VERSION?
Nope. Sorry. I give freebies away, almost invariably, with copy and modify permissions only. I don’t modify permissions once set.

DO YOU OFFER SUPPORT?
I don’t refuse to offer support. However, my free items are free because I don’t really have the time to support them. I’m not in world very often and, as such, you will probably end up waiting a long time for me to respond.

CAN I HAVE YOUR TEXTURES?
I buy all my textures under license from the uber talented texture creators in world. I don’t give them away. However, if you have a question about a particular texture, let me know and I will dig out the creator’s name for you to go buy them yourself.

WHY DOES MY ITEM SAY NO MODIFY IN MY INVENTORY?
There are some scripts that are no modify in some of my freebies. This is why it shows up this way in your inventory. However, if you rezz the item you will be able to make modifications to the prims themselves.

WHY ARE YOU SO SARCASTIC?
It’s genetic, I think.

When I go exploring in Second Life, I tend to have the imagination of a dead goldfish…. I stick to destination guide venues despite knowing that this is really very restrictive and that so many awesome places aren’t listed.

However, I find that the search function in world really is poor… that’s a whole other post though.

I get emails a lot through the blog from people telling me about their locations and inviting me to write a post on them. I do go to all of them…although sometimes it takes me a while if I’m not in world that week etc. But honestly, with all due respect, a lot of what comes through isn’t what I would write about. It’s either overly commercial, a nightclub (not into SL nightclubs for the most part) or is a little too much just like everything else I see. However, I visited a place today called Ravenhurst at the request of Taibah Takahe. I’m glad I did….

Now, if this were a real life location it would be a protected World Heritage spot. What a beautiful set up.  The description tells us it’s a modern role play sim (based on Washington State). However, some of the builds look older. Taibah did invite me to IM her for a personal tour. However, I find that if I speak to creators or to people involved with sim builds before exploring and writing up any posts about them, they tend to be fairly biased. I also think that those closest to certain projects have a different view of them to people who are seeing them for the first time. So I went it alone….

I won’t write up a huge post about it. The pictures say enough I think, so suffice to say that it’s a beautiful place and well worth going taking half hour out of your day to explore. The all important SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ravenhurst/88/131/23

I came across a song on Jamendo (a Creative Commons music site) that I pretty much fell in love with. The track is called ‘Candle Glow,’ by an artist called Abscondo. You can find his site at http://www.abscondo.com.

Inspired by the song and the rather contemplative nature of some of the lyrics, I put together a machinima around it…. though let me be honest and say the purpose of the machinima is mostly a way for me to get the song out there. I love it and I think you guys will too.

The idea behind the machinima is really reflective of some of my own thinking I’ve been doing recently. We all feel battered and bruised by life at times and retreat into ourselves to work it all out and try to find a way to communicate it. That is what this is about. And of course, the amazing track.

If you hate the machinima, that’s absolutely fine. Just close your eyes and enjoy the music.

It seems as though everyone is obsessed with Twilight. I have taken my son to see the films and thought they were… well… average. I’m blatantly not the target market. A sullen, sunken-faced vampire with a glittery chest falls head over heels in love with a moody teenage human who is also kind of into said Vampire’s arch enemy, the part time Werewolf . I’m thinking it’s more for the teenage female audience than me. But anyway… the marketing is incredibly clever and the brand has become huge, second, perhaps, only to Harry Potter.

It goes without saying then that Linden Lab, like everyone else, will want to cash in on the rise in popularity of “vampires.”

They even went as far as using avatars clearly made to resemble to Twilight characters in their marketing and have now set up a page dedicated to helping people to find their Vampire clan, here.

What is perhaps more laughable is the fact that the first one on here is ‘Bloodlines.’ Now, I’m not claiming to be a Vampire expert or anything, but if Twilight fans join Second Life specifically for vampire roleplay, I’m thinking Bloodlines might not be what they are looking for. At no point in any of the Twilight films did I see a Vampire ask for permission to bite someone – nor did I see any humans report these Vampires to an authority for spam. It really takes the bite out of vampirism (pardon the pun) to have it all messed up with HUDs and inconvenient spam reports, doesn’t it?

I know little about the other clans and honestly, it’s just not my thing. But what I do know about Bloodlines is that it’s essentially a viral spamming game! I’ve said before that I find the concept bizarre at best. I just think that if Linden Lab are going to try and pull people in off the back of Twilight, they’d be best encouraging some of the more authentic Vampire clans!

I’m looking at doing a little experiment and this will require a bit of assistance.

As some of you know, I am in SEO/Internet Marketing by ‘real life’ trade. I work with people in all sectors on their websites but, as you would expect when you consider the potential returns versus the investment required, I don’t really have “virtual worlds,” businesses on my books.

SEO, for anyone not familiar, involves carrying out work both on a website and off of it (relating to how the site is linked to from other sites) in order to make it rank better in the search engines for certain keywords.

Let me totally up front. I am looking for data. Lots of it. But in order to get it, I’m putting up some free SEO in a few areas.

The keywords I am interested in are:-

“Second Life Land,” “Second Life Real Estate,” “Second Life Fashion” and “Second Life Music/Musicians.”

They are relatively small keywords in terms of how many people search for them each month (anything between 300 and 1200) but I am interested in the beaviour of users who land on a site after searching for those keywords.

So here is what I propose to do:- I want to find people with websites in these areas who would like to (or would benefit from) ranking in the top ten in Google for those keywords. In exchange for carrying out work to help them to rank for them, I would like access to data about their visitors and visitor behaviour. It’s that simple.

I don’t want money, commissions, performance based pay… none of it. That’s not what I am interested in. I want numbers

I am only going to take on one website in each area. Basically, the following criteria will apply:-

1. You must already have a website in this area.

2. The site must be on your own domain (not a subdomain of .wordpress.com or .blogspot.com or anything like that).

That’s pretty much it.

If you want to get involved, drop me an email to josue [@] pixelscoop.net detailing your website address and whether it relates to anything you do actually in world.

Thank you muchly.

As many of you know, I don’t get in world as much as I would like anymore. As a full time Father and a whole load of hours to put in running my business each week, it’s a long, long week.

But tonight I got the chance to get back in world. There are just a few people in world who I keep in touch with regularly and a couple who I really wish I was more in touch with. Tonight, I got the chance to hang out with one of those friends and I’m feeling pretty refreshed for it.

I hung out at her skybox for a bit, before we both threw our webcams on so I could show her my new apartment in Manchester (and so my son could show off lol) and she could show me her place. After an hour or so, we turned them off and got back in world to explore some.

It’s amazing really, just how much it feels like really hanging out with old friends to catch up with people you know in world.

Virtual worlds are an incredible platform for meeting really interesting people from the other side of the world, who you might otherwise never have gotten to meet. And as much as I don’t get in much these days, I really do appreciate the hours that I can.

Anyway, this post was the least entertaining and amusing post ever, wasn’t it? Next time I get in world, you have my promise that I will spend the time productively, taking pictures of blingtards who I will then mercilessly take the piss out of on the blog.