Posted by Shaun Altman
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:05:02 GMT
I don't generally write political posts. I do a lot of business in the metaverse, and my general feeling is that business and politics should be separate enterprises. Following what was, in my view, one of the most important elections in American history though, I felt compelled to sit down and analyze some of my own thoughts on the topic. In an unusual departure, I'd like to share some of these thoughts with you, but please keep in mind that I talk with you today as a person, and as an American citizen. The views below are mine, and do not represent official views of, nor endorsements on behalf of the Metaverse Investment Fund.
The 2008 fight for the White House was long and fiercely contended, with serious campaigning spanning some 21-22 months. It was a much different campaign this time around though, in that the nominations brought a genuine choice between two truly great candidates. This is in stark contrast to recent history, where all we could really pick from as Americans was the lesser of two evils.
Now its no secret that I'm a registered Democrat. I'm not a subscriber to most of the extreme partisan ideologies though, and often find myself somewhere near the center. Its also no secret that I'm EXTREMELY anti-Bush, so this may come as a bit of a surprise to some, but I think we could have done a lot worse than Senator John McCain.
Having served as a wartime officer, Senator McCain knows a thing or two about wars, and we currently find ourselves embroiled in a couple of those. Unlike George Bush, he knows quite a bit about freedom and liberty, having fought for it. He knows a lot about human rights too, having personally been a victim of unspeakable acts of torture, and would have no doubt led admirably on global human rights issues as well as wartime conduct issues. He's also served our nation as a member of the United States Congress since 1982, and would have brought a wide breadth of leadership experience to the oval office.
Yes, as much as it bugs some of my friends on the extreme left to hear, we could have indeed done a lot worse than Senator McCain, had the election gone another way. In fact, we've been doing a lot worse through nearly a decade of the hands-down worst leadership that this nation has ever chosen to endure. The Senator from Arizona is an amazing guy in a lot of ways, with a rich history of national service. He didn't end up with my support in the end, but that wasn't because I have the kind of partisan hatred for him that has been so widely demonstrated recently, and it wasn't because I felt he'd have made a poor leader.
On the other hand, we had Senator and now President-Elect Barack Obama, another great choice for President, who we know absolutely nothing about. ...huh?!
That's right folks, as a nation, we've just decided to head to Vegas and roll the dice. Anyone who says that they have any clue whatsoever regarding how President Obama will actually govern is a liar. He's completely untried and untested in the capacity of the office that he's about to occupy. That doesn't make him a bad choice though. In fact, in the political and economic climate that we currently find ourselves in, both as a nation and as a world, I feel that it makes him a very interesting and indeed compelling choice for President of the United States.
I didn't choose to give my support to President Obama because of any kind of track record in the United States Senate which would lead me to conclude that he's the safer bet to lead us through these troublesome times. In fact, at the end of the day, we're probably taking a MUCH bigger risk with President Obama than we would have with Senator McCain, simply because our new president is such an unknown quantity. When it came right down to it, I did my best to weigh this risk, and decided to take a gamble. Like many of you, I took a chance on change.
President Obama speaks passionately about a number of issues that are important to me right now. I believe that it is exactly this passion that has a chance to bring us through a rather bleak today and into a brighter tomorrow. So, I took a chance on change.
One of the biggest problems that we face as a society today is our own polarization. The partisan politics of the extreme left and the extreme right rule the day. This only serves to drive us farther apart as Americans, with wedge issue after wedge issue distracting us from the things that are most important. This is THE MOST CRITICAL ISSUE we face, in my view. If we can manage to break the cycle of being so vehemently Democrat and Republican... if we can choose to come together around the things which unite us as Americans rather than spewing the hatred that divides us as the partisan extremists which so many of us have become... the rest will suddenly become a WHOLE lot simpler.
Let me give you a recent example from my own life of why this is such an important issue. Very close to the election, some news reports led me to be concerned that Obama may have adjusted his tax strategy at the last minute, which led me to take another look at Senator McCain. I struck up a conversation about this with a good friend, and fellow Obama supporter, in an attempt to gain some additional perspective. His most memorable response was to tell me to fuck off and stop whining. That's right, as far as my good friend was concerned, if I were to support Senator McCain in this election, I could fuck off and should stop whining.
Now I don't bring this up to cast a negative light on the man, who by the way remains my good friend. I bring it up to illustrate that the extreme political polarization of recent history serves only to turn friends and countrymen against each other. I'm sure many of you can think of similar personal, regional and national examples.
I could cite a lot more myself, but I'll leave it at this: We'll never get anywhere as a country when we start from polarized extremes such as "look, its either my way or fuck off, whiner", and these extremes are all too prevalent. We're a deeply divided nation, and we're in much need of healing.
I realize that this is general, and I could spend a lot of time drilling down from here into specifics. I don't really want to write a book tonight though, and looking up the page, I seem to be getting close already. :) So, suffice it to say, our division and lack of coherent national vision as a people were the main driving factors which led me to take a chance on a vision of change rather than to fall back on a proven leader.
President Obama talks a great game. He speaks of a United States, rather than red and blue states. He speaks of unity, peace, a return to international credibility, community and infrastructure building on a national level, cultivating a culture of involvement and national service, and more. He talks a good enough game to convince me to to take a chance on change.
Never in my lifetime has our nation been in such a bad situation on so many levels. We're in the aftermath of nearly a decade of an extremist, arch-religious, ultra-conservative political machine walking all over our constitution, walking all over us and walking all over the world as a whole. These wounds will not be easy to heal, and its going to take all of us to pull it off.
Its definitely not the time to bury our heads in the sand and live in fear of our situation though, because by contrast, never in my lifetime has there been a national environment that is so ripe for change and true progress. While the odds against meaningful societal changes are always long, for a variety of reasons, there's never been a better environment to take the chance.
Unlike a lot of my friends in the Democratic party however, I'm not celebrating tonight. I'm not celebrating because so far, we've only done the easy part. We've elected a president. We've come together as a nation, and we've picked. That was easy, it just took a few hours.
Now that we've taken what I believe history will define as one of our biggest national risks to date, its time for the hard part, which is giving that risk the best possible chance and the best possible environment to perform and pay off. President Obama has a great vision, but he can't pull off the kind of change that we sent him to the White House to deliver alone. If we REALLY want the kind of change we voted for on November 4th, its going to take each and every one of us participating to pull it off. We can't go home from the polls and leave our brave new leader in the trenches alone.
So I'm not celebrating tonight, because I recognize that the road ahead is long and hard. Instead, I choose tonight to be cautiously optimistic. I believe that the voice of the nation on November 4th testified to its desire for true change and real reform. Now its time to do the hard work. Its time to stand up and fight for the changes that we desire. We're at a major turning point as a nation, where its time to hop off of the 1990's gravy train and embrace a national culture of civic responsibility.
I believe that we can do this together. To quote one American hero, who would also like very much to see us all come together, America IS worth fighting for, and I think that as a country we recognize that. I'm ready to stand behind our new President, and join together with my friends from everywhere on the political spectrum, to build a better America for we the people - for all of us. I hope that you are too. I believe that we have the right man at the right time to lead us on this journey, and I'll leave you with that thought tonight. I remain cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to come out of our Democratic and Republican trenches to face these challenges as Americans. I believe that if we're willing to try though, then yes... yes we can! :)
Posted in etc | 1 comment
Posted by Shaun Altman
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:53:00 GMT
Yay, exploding web servers! Just when you think life has thrown you all of the stress that it possibly can in a two week period, something new happens! :) The server appears to have been down since very early this morning, and the ISP had to make multiple (slow) attempts to get us fully restored on new hardware.
All seems to be well with the server now. I hope to have a lot of exciting new content up on my blog shortly. I've been thinking a lot about the metaverse lately, and have also been working on some cool new stuff in Second Life. I hope you've all been having a better time than me for the last couple of weeks, and very soon I'll be bringing you all up to date on the things I've been thinking about and working on lately!
Posted in Second Life | Tags cool, downtime, metaverse, new, secondlife, sigh, stress, stuff, ugh | no comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:12:00 GMT
I discovered today that Prokofy Neva has been reading my blog, and rather than simply leaving a comment, has responded to my previous post with a post of her own at Second Thoughts. Her post is titled "Shaun Altman's Further Descent into Goonery". While this title does make me smile a bit, the article, much like the title, is as expected, filled with nonsense and propoganda.
As such, I felt that I should set the record straight on a few (ugh... DOZEN) points that Prokofy Neva has raised in her defense of the recent Ravenglass Rentals scandal. First of all, I am not a "goon", nor am I a "griefer". Second Life is serious business, not a playground.
In fact, I have only "griefed" in Second Life one time. This was years ago, and it was done from Prokofy Neva's land, with Prokofy Neva's knowledge, consent, approval and (as I recall) desire. I put up a large image of my old fox avatar facing a build called the "FIC Headquarters" or something, which was operated by a group of people whom Prokofy regularly griefed back in those days.
Does this make me "a griefer" or "a goon"? I think not. In fact I'd be surprised to learn that most readers haven't done something far worse and/or funnier at some point in their second lives.
I didn't intend to grief Prokofy Neva, and I'm not quite sure how one would "provocatively rent". I was just trying to rent a house, and I didn't have any plans to rez anything that was against the rules at either LL or Ravenglass Rentals. I was planning to rez a living room set and possibly some snuggly PG pose balls, but my land was sized without refund, by Prokofy Neva, before I could even find my sofa in inventory.
As a result of this incident though, we've elected to give up on renting any more land. I just can't stomach the idea of being ripped off again by an overzealous slumlord. "Thousands of Prokofy Neva's customers" may possibly "know that she doesn't scam people", but at least two of her victims know that she does. A refund is still not forthcoming.
Instead of renting again, we've purchased a small parcel of mainland in Refugio (pictured above). We welcome you all to stop by and say hello. Since this land doesn't come with a house though, we're not sure if we will go residential or if we will express ourselves in different ways.
It is interesting to note that while trying to paint a false picture of me as some sort of "griefer", Prokofy Neva admits to griefing university staff in real life. If I could elaborate a bit on what she told us in her post, what I feel she actually did was contact the real world boss of an avatar in a video game, in an attempt to have that avatar fired from a real life job.
Since the time of this incident, I've had a nagging feeling that it would be appropriate for someone to contact Prokofy Neva's bosses at the United Nations and have a candid discussion about some of her exploits in virtual worlds. After all, is it really safe, or consistent with United Nations security interests, to have someone with this mindset translating for foreign diplomats? Her name is available on the internet, so it shouldn't be much of a challenge for anyone wishing to rise to the occasion.
I have to say that it really saddens my heart to see Prokofy Neva attacking me with all of this nonsense, after stealing our money. When you put up land for rent to anyone, you shouldn't seize it from tenants who are obeying the rules. Its called theft, and that's just basic common sense.
I find it quite a shame that she won the election to "hold her seat" during the officer recall she mentions on her post. Surely, had someone else won the election to control the group owned land, they would not be running a scam where they rent land out to people for L$750 per minute, while falsely advertising it as a one week rental. It is a pity that the democratic measure of "officer recall" is no longer available within Second Life. The image of Ravenglass Rentals is being tarnished by this officer. It is probably in the best interest of all tenants as well as future potential land scam victims that she be recalled.
Regarding Woodbury University, they don't seem to be a griefing group. Nobody in this group has ever griefed me, asked me to do something, and/or recruited me. I'm not quite sure where Prokofy Neva came up with this, but again its nothing but a bunch of propoganda. I haven't "fallen for" anything. I've just joined a group with some fun people I met at SLCC last year. That's still well within the rules as I understand them.
I also didn't make the "Prok Star" t-shirt. The creator seems to be Cory Edo. Although I do very much enjoy wearing the shirt from time to time, I am unable to take the credit that Prokofy Neva would like to give me for making it.
In conclusion, I feel that Ravenglass Rentals slumlord, Prokofy Neva, should refund our L$1,500, as she has failed to provide any service in exchange for it. It is not right to advertise land for rent and then just take the money without providing the land to a rule abiding tenant for the specified term.
2 comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:22:00 GMT
I've just had the absolute worst home rental experience of my Second Life, thanks to Ravenglass Rentals and its operator, Prokofy Neva. What happened was so nasty that I felt a need to write up a quick blog post on the topic, so that hopefully my readers will not fall victim as I did. I hope this saves some people from being taken to the cleaners by Ravenglass Rentals.
I decided yesterday to rent an e-home in Second Life, so I could make use of many domestic objects which had been sitting idle in my inventory for some time. Since Ravenglass Rentals was known to me in the past for having nice lands and controlled views, I thought I would check out a few homes in the Ravenglass region. Once there, I found the home pictured above, and immediately fell in love with it. The price was very excessive, but since I liked it so much, I paid the rental box one week's rent.
In exchange for my one week's rent, I received roughly one minute of property usage. While I was in my inventory window looking for my living room set, the owner of Ravenglass Rentals, Prokofy Neva, teleported to my rented home, banned me from the land I had just rented from her and reset the rental box for a new "tenant" (read: sucker) to come along and give her ANOTHER week's rent. My instant messages requesting an explanation and/or refund were subsequently ignored.
This is a very popular land scam, but it is usually practiced on private islands rather than the mainland. What the scammers generally do is sell off a whole island, then boot all of the buyers and sell it off again (and again and again). Its a disgusting practice, and I was very sad to see that it had seemingly become so mainstream that even an old hat such as Prokofy Neva might feel comfortable ripping off unsuspecting Second Life residents in this manner. Indeed, I could hardly believe my eyes.
Now it is true that I am an occasional critic of Prokofy Neva. With this in mind, I thought there may be some chance that she was stealing from me more out of a misplaced sense of spite and revenge than general business practice. Wanting to confirm which was the case, and noting that the e-home was once again available for rent within one minute of the time I had rented it, I asked someone that I know and trust to rent the same e-home from Prokofy Neva.
Again, the rental box was paid one week's worth of what seems like very excessive rent for this property. A sofa was rezed and 20 or 30 minutes passed. Then once again, Prokofy Neva teleported out of the ether, banned the tenant from the property and reset the rental box so it would potentially be able to capture a THIRD week's rent from a THIRD unsuspecting victim.
As with before, there was no refund and no response to IMs requesting an explanation and/or refund. It seems that indeed, this scheme must be a general business practice for Prokofy Neva and Ravenglass Rentals. It is a shame to see a once prominent land lord apparently having to resort to scamming and slum lording tactics to keep her business vibrant and her bills paid during Second Life's great depression. We can only hope that Prokofy Neva's Ravenglass Rentals will return to more ethical business practices as the depression ends.
Either way, after this experience, I'd advise anyone and everyone against renting property from Prokofy Neva, under the Ravenglass Rentals name or any other name. We were victims twice in under an hour, paying two weeks rent and receiving under one hour of property usage in return. It is my sincere hope, as I write this post, that YOU will not be the next victim of land seizure by Prokofy Neva at Ravenglass Rentals.
Posted in Business, Community, Economy, People, Places, Second Life, Stuff That Makes Me Angry | Tags land, neva, prokofy, ravenglass, rentals, scam, theft | 8 comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:28:00 GMT
It appears that the land I mentioned in my previous article has been returned from Linden Lab to the university professor, and the owner of the land has been unbanned. I am greatly relieved to see that, at least in this case, a powerful cabal of well-connected large land holders was unable to arbitrarily decide which of their neighbors is allowed to stay in Second Life, and which should face property seizure and banishment.
Posted in Places, Second Life | 1 comment
Posted by Shaun Altman
Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:29:00 GMT
Linden Lab seems to have sent us another reminder recently that Second Life may have entered a whole new era. This is not the kind of era that we all hope for, such as for example, an era of economic rebound. Instead, it seems to be an era of, among other things, land seizure and account banning conducted by Linden Lab, based on what your powerful well-connected neighbor thinks of you and/or what you've built next-door.
Let me start this article off by saying that I'm not generally one to be critical of Linden Lab, especially in public. I love Second Life, and I truly believe that this type of technology holds a lot of promise for the future in a variety of areas. I also feel that generally speaking, there is no better qualified group of individuals on the planet to usher us into this new technological era than the folks at Linden Lab.
With that said, the events that I've seen occur recently leave me with a feeling of deep concern for what the future of Second Life may be like, and cause me to wonder if I'll even want to participate in that future. Let me share the most recent series of these events with you to the extent that I can recall them.
A couple of nights ago, someone sent me an instant message to tell me about a new build in the Furness region of Second Life. Furness is an un-zoned mainland region which the avatar Prokofy Neva owns a lot of land in and around. I learned that what seems to be a group of students belonging to a university, had begun construction of a tower on some land that one of them had purchased in the region. I knew that Prokofy Neva generally rented virtual houses in this area of the grid, and was curious about what effect a tower may have on the landscape, so I teleported over to Furness to check it out.
When I arrived, I found the avatar IntLibber Brautigan, the avatar Prokofy Neva, a few other avatars who's names I can't recall, and indeed, a partially constructed tower. It seemed to be shaping up to be a very nice tower, which while large, may have added a lot of value to the area. There was also signage present, facing a nearby road, which indicated that this land was to be the future home of Woodbury University in Second Life.
I was pretty busy at the time, so after having a look around the area, I wished the avatars good luck with their school project and teleported back to my home location. The next day, I received a teleport spam from Prokofy Neva, inviting me to the Furness region, with no accompanying instant message. I was still pretty busy, but being ever-curious about what someone as dynamic as Prokofy Neva is up to in Second Life, I decided to accept the teleport invitation.
When I arrived, Prokofy asked me if I remembered what was on the lot we were next to. Indeed, next to us was an empty lot where the tower belonging to the university students stood the night before, but it was no longer there. A closer examination revealed the land to now be owned by Governor Linden.
Prokofy Neva went on to inform me that the avatar who purchased this land had been banned from Second Life, after the seizure of the avatar's property (land) by Linden Lab. He then asked me a very chilling question. I didn't log it, so I can't quote it verbatim, but it was directly along the lines of, "Do you see what I can get done if I want to?".
This event is alarming mostly because when I viewed the build prior to it, there didn't seem to be anything present which violated the rules of Second Life. Prokofy Neva often theorizes about the existence of a secretive and elite cabal of Second Life residents, known as the "Feted Inner Core", or "FIC" for short. According to Prokofy Neva, this is a group of residents who are well-connected with Linden Lab, and receive special favors and/or special treatment within Second Life as a result of those connections.
Prokofy Neva also speculates often in public about which Second Life residents may or may not be members of this shadowy organization. I know a lot of people on this list, and because I've never witnessed an event related to one of them that I could describe beyond a reasonable doubt as special treatment, I've never really bought into the notion of "a FIC" controlling the destiny of Second Life. My eyes have been opened on this issue in a most surprising way though.
If these events took place as I understand them, it seems to me that in fact "a FIC" may be very much alive and well within the grid, and Prokofy Neva may be its chairman. I don't know about you, but personally, I know of no other avatar who can summon some friends with the last name of Linden, and say to them, "I don't like this build. Snatch the land from the person who paid for it, remove the build, and ban the land owner from the game".
In my view, these events serve to highlight a concern that I've felt building in the community for quite a while. I joined Second Life in 2004, which makes me a fairly old avatar by today's standards. Back then, Linden Lab often told us that we were building a world. In fact, the vision that they sold to me, which has kept me so passionately engaged through both good and bad times, was "Your world, your imagination".
Alarming events like these, which are happening often in Second Life's more recent history, seem to indicate that Linden Lab may have lost its way somewhere along the road. I worry that they may have forgotten about why we're all here and why we all invest so much time, emotion, money and expertise into building this brave new world, which they once proudly told us was forged by our imaginations. It appears that Linden Lab may have begun paving a NEW road, comprised of censorship, corporate sanitization, and pandering to the whimsical desires of special interests such as real-world mega-corps and very large land holders like Prokofy Neva, at the expense of the community as a whole.
This is a road that doesn't hold much interest for me as a resident of Second Life. It is my sincere hope that Linden Lab will find its way once again, and return to its roots as true innovators in the fields of communication, collaboration, experimentation and free expression, rather than continuing to evolve into just another sad reminder of the power that the status quo holds over all of us.
Posted in Places, Second Life, Stuff That Makes Me Angry | 7 comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:00:00 GMT
It has been a while since any news was posted regarding the Ginko liquidation process. Please rest assured that this isn't because I have forgotten about you, but simply because there have been no concrete developments since the last update. This has recently changed, so I thought I'd take a minute to advise everyone on where Ginko virtual liquidation trust stands.
IntLibber Brautigan has succeeded in selling the Von Mises simulator for L$300,000 and has delivered this sum to me for inclusion in Ginko virtual liquidation trust. This makes the trust a little better off than where it was a few days ago. However, news is not so good regarding the sale of BNT virtual shares formerly owned by Ginko.
IntLibber Brautigan has been actively blockading the sale of these shares, via administrative controls on his ACE virtual stock exchange, where the shares are listed. He feels that if our shares are sold, the price of BNT won't go up. This may or may not be true, but I must advise you that were it not for this blockade, the shares would be mostly sold by now and it would be just about time for a liquidation dividend.
I have been completely unsuccessful, over a period of months, in convincing IntLibber Brautigan to end the blockade. If you would like this situation to change, I would strongly encourage you to contact IntLibber Brautigan and share your feelings on the blockade of share sales with him. These are, in fact, YOUR shares. I remain hopeful that we will be able to sell these shares and recover additional funds.
In other news, World Stock Exchange has recently announced a service outage of "up to 30 days", stating that it is for reasons related to deployment of a new version of their stock market simulation software. As a software developer with a lot of experience in web applications, I'm fully aware that deploying a new version shouldn't impact the production version at all, or cause more than a few minutes to a few hours of service outage. With this in mind, it seems a little alarming that such an extended downtime is occurring, again, and I am a little concerned that something catastrophic or just plain bizarre may have occurred behind the scenes. I wouldn't want to speculate as to what this may be without any more information beyond the outage itself though, and I very well could be wrong.
I remain hopeful that World Stock Exchange will reopen. Failing that, I remain hopeful that the Ginko victim list can be provided by Hope Capital, so I can script a Second Life object of my own to deliver your virtual liquidation dividend. So, what's the bottom line for Ginko virtual liquidation trust?
We're L$300,000 better off than we were a few days ago, but we still have a long way to go. I remain hopeful that we will get there.
As a reminder, I am not affiliated with Ginko in any way. I am simply a third party and fellow victim, trying to help us all recover as much as possible from Ginko's in-world Second Life assets.
Posted in Business, Economy, Ginko Financial, Second Life, World Stock Exchange | 2 comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT
Tonight, I circulated the following press release to major Second Life media centers:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2007
GINKO LIQUIDATION UPDATE
The virtual asset recovery window for the virtual Ginko liquidation trust has closed. No additional virtual assets proved to be recoverable.
What was recovered:
BNT virtual Stock - 8,783,436 Shares
RIS virtual Stock - 1,667 Shares
Land - 1 Second Life Region (Von Mises)
Known Unrecoverable Virtual Assets:
HCL virtual Stock - 8,800,000 Shares, LukeConnell Vandeverre in possession.
Liquidation of recovered virtual assets has begun. I expect this to be a VERY slow process, as liquidity in the virtual stock markets is extremely limited. I am presently advising any Ginko victims who would like to benefit from this virtual asset liquidation to HOLD their virtual WTF shares, or to consider buying them back if they have already been sold for L$. IF you choose to sell your virtual WTF shares, the buyer of your virtual shares will benefit in your place, and your recovery will be limited to the L$ you receive from the sale of your virtual shares.
A third press release will be circulated to major Second Life media centers when liquidation of recovered virtual assets is complete. Due to the uncertain nature of the virtual stock markets, I have no firm timeline to share with you at present. Please watch my blog at http://www.shaunaltman.com/ for occasional updates.
Posted in Business, Economy, Ginko Financial, World Stock Exchange | 3 comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:57:00 GMT
Since I've opened my blog, most of the discussion in the comments has been fairly spirited. I think this is a great thing, and in fact, I encourage it! I believe that the truth of a matter usually rests somewhere in the middle of a variety of clashing opinions.
When I started my blog, I invited everyone to share their opinions with the community, no matter what those opinions happened to be. I had one rule: no personal attacks. Some of the comments since then have REALLY been skating on thin ice. We're all (presumably) adults here, and we shouldn't need a babysitter in order to be civil and treat each-other with respect. I REALLY don't want to be put in the position of having to moderate and censor comments, but if I'm forced to, I will. Hence this reminder: NO PERSONAL ATTACKS. Thanks. :)
I'm also instituting a new rule for comments today, no more anonymous comments. Personally, I find this practice incredibly rude. It seems kind of like trying to have a conversation with a ghost. In addition, I don't think there is any point to building a community if we don't know who everyone is. If you don't have enough respect for your peers, or enough belief in your words to sign your name, then I don't think your comments belong here.
With this in mind, please sign all comments with your full Second Life avatar name. All future comments that don't conform to this policy will be removed regardless of their content. Thank you for understanding and helping to keep this small community friendly and interesting! As always, I look forward to chatting with you in the comments! :)
Posted in etc | no comments
Posted by Shaun Altman
Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:14:00 GMT
This is just a quick update to let the community know that I'm pushing the date at which recovered Ginko assets will be documented back by a short amount of time. New facts and situations have come to light near the end of the asset discovery process, and I feel that it is in everyone's best interests if I take some time to explore said facts and situations fully. What does "A short amount of time" mean? I'm not sure yet, but I would imagine a few days to a week.
I will circulate a press release, as promised, documenting what I have recovered, just as soon as I am positive that I have recovered as many assets as we can reasonably expect to. The best thing that Ginko victims can do right now is be patient as this process unfolds. At this time, I am also recommending AGAINST Ginko victims selling the shares that you were given in the WTF fraud fund at World Stock Exchange. If you choose to sell these shares, it is possible that you will be unable to realize any benefits from this liquidation, as the buyer may realize them in your place. If you HAVE sold your Ginko bonds or shares of the WTF fraud fund, I am recommending that you buy those shares back, and hold ONE share of the WTF fraud fund for each L$1 that you had deposited at Ginko's bank until this liquidation is complete.
If you are reading this, and know others who had deposits at Ginko's bank, please ensure that they read it as well. If you are a Second Life media organization that is carrying my press releases regarding the Ginko liquidation plan, please feel free to link to and quote from this article.
Please note that I am not in any way affiliated with Ginko. I am only a stakeholder, like yourselves, who is attempting to pick up the pieces by recovering and liquidating any in-world Ginko assets I can for the benefit of all victims.
Posted in Community, Economy, Ginko Financial, World Stock Exchange | 4 comments
