My Digits: 2022 Edition – A Triple Whammy

NOTICE: This post discusses, among other topics, matters of an erotic, fetishistic, and romantic nature. If you are not legally allowed to read such material, and / or if such readings and images offend you, I suggest you leave right now.

Breaking from the tradition of the previous instalments in the “My Digits” series, I’m making this post relatively early in the year. If I were to strictly follow the meme / blogging challenge by Strawberry Linden (née Singh) that I first encountered way back in 2013, I’d have to publish it sometime in late June / early July. However, it’s a very old meme, and even Berry herself doesn’t seem to be continuing it, so it’s pretty much disappeared from every Second Life blogger’s radar.

The trusty Avatar Ruler from [OO] gets pulled out once again, for another “My Digits” post…

“Have You Ever” Challenge (Second Life Edition)

As always, click on the image for the full-size version. It opens in a new tab.

Wow, it’s been many moons since I last bothered to post anything in here. RL work and family obligations keep me busy all the time, and I’m no longer that interested in Second Life; I do log in, I do pay my rent, I do chat and see the friends I’ve kept in there, but that’s about it. I don’t even watch Flickr as much as I used to. Today, I did. And I found this new challenge by Strawberry Linden (née Singh). Of course, given her current job at Linden Lab, the challenge can’t be – ahem – saucy (what’s with LL’s obsession with posing as “family-friendly”, anyway?). But anyway, I thought it’d be a good way to kill some time, so here goes:

Have you ever…

• Owned a region? Yes.
• Created Content? Yes.
• Gone to a live music event? Yes.
• Teleport-spammed to get into a crowded event? No, I’m not desperate to have the latest fashion items before others do.
• Made your SL avatar similar to your physical world avatar? Errrr, I suppose you mean similar to my RL shape; yes, I have.
• Gone on a shopping spree? Yes. Too often.
• Gone clubbing? Yes. Who hasn’t?
• Helped a newbie out? Yes.
• Role-played? Yes.
• Had or attended a wedding? Attended.
• Used SL for educational purposes? No.
• Fallen in love? Yes. Twice. The first time was the biggest regret of my life.
• Played a sport? No.
• Used the Destination Guide to explore? Yes.
• Participated in the Community Forums? Yes.
• Found inner peace? Nope.
• Started a Second Life blog? Yes.
• Used your avatar name on other social platforms? Yes.
• Taken glamour shots of your avatar? Absolutely.
• Adopted a pet or baby? No.

So, there you have it. Mona Eberhardt signing off for now!

Shortlink: https://wp.me/p2pUmX-130

My Digits: 2019 Edition

I have to admit that, as a blogger, I’m effectively in semi-retirement. RL obligations keep me distracted from doing things in-world and from blogging. Also, I lack the motivation and drive I used to have. I guess you could say that all these years in Second Life have caused a fair bit of fatigue. However, I still care enough about SL and similar free-style virtual worlds in general to try and promote policies that don’t ruin their potential. Last time around, I participated in the protests against the destructive EU Copyright Directive, whose articles 15 (formerly 11) and 17 (formerly 13) pose a grave existential threat to virtual worlds like SL and (unsuccessfully) lobbied my country’s MEPs to vote against it. Only two did – the others chose to become accomplices to Axel Voss’ and Emmanuel Macron’s machinations.

Anyway, here I am, blogging again, but not one of my usual long-form opinion pieces. Instead, I chose to blog about my shape, necro-posting one of Strawberry Linden’s (née Singh) old memes. If you’re wondering why… Well, the truth is, I simply felt like it, and I had a few reasons to do it. You see, I’d been tinkering with my shape a wee bit, so I thought I’d give you an opportunity to compare this version of me to the previous ones. Finally, I have a bunch of things to say about it all.

As always, clicking on the image takes you to the full-size version, which opens in a new tab.

Bloggers and Linden Lab trademarks: sanity prevailed

The talk of the day was #berryCopyright, a (erroneously named, as the dispute was about trademarks and not copyrights) hashtag encompassing a trademark complaint Linden Research Inc. filed with YouTube against a tutorial video by blogger/vlogger Strawberry Singh, who shared on her blog what had happened to her. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and Linden Research Inc., after considerable outcry by community members, bloggers, and commentators, reversed the ill-advised takedown notice and publicly apologised to Ms Singh. The trademark complaint which was filed with YouTube by the company’s IP specialist, who goes by the “Tia Linden” name in-world, was revoked, and an encouragingly-worded post was made on the company’s official blog. This trademark complaint honestly made no sense whatsoever, as the appearance of LL’s trademarks (most notably, the “eye-in-hand” logo) in the “offending” video had every hallmark of fair, informational use, as one can easily understand by reading the International Trademark Association’s material on the subject, and the material provided by Nolo (the latter was contributed to Strawberry Singh’s original post as a comment by Alana Onyett).

Yet another stupid dick move by Linden Lab

UPDATE: The situation described herein has been resolved; please read the follow-up post here.

You had one job. How could you fuck it up so badly?

Perhaps thinking we had missed its worst, Linden Research Inc. decided to file a trademark complaint with YouTube against one of the biggest promoters, supporters, and advocates of Second Life, blogger/vlogger Strawberry Singh. The “offending” video is a tutorial, included in her “Introduction to Second Life” blog post, in which she explains to new users how to create an account, download the official viewer, and move around in their 3D surroundings. Since she unavoidably screen-captured her web browser to show people around the official website, the video obviously displayed SL’s eye-in-hand logo. The logo was also featured prominently in the 3D walkaround, as the in-world welcome area itself includes it.