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If you miss the [w:Ayn Rand] reference, I will explain.

You say that we - and it is important to note that it is a larger group than you or I, and even includes those in dissent with myself and others - are making a difference. I cannot argue that, but I also cannot support that. I have seen nothing in the way of this that is empirical. What would be empirical? When the community does get Linden Lab attention on important matters rather than the dismissive attitude accompanied by the addition of functionality of dubious value.

I am not the community. At times, I voice concerns of the community - but I am not foolish or Prokish (they are, indeed, mutually exclusive) enough to think that I speak for the entire community. That would be as much hubris as Linden Lab demonstrates in these matters.

It boils down to this: I am not being paid for the 'service'. Who am I to try to fix said 'service'? Sure, I can do many things in Second Life - I have, and I probably will, but ultimately I am not the one getting paid. I am not the one who is turning a blind eye, and it is not my reputation that is as degraded as the service. Maybe if the community was more interested, something would be done - but if the community is interested, they certainly have not demonstrated it effectively: they have not gotten Linden Lab to do anything about the problems.

So we can gripe, become sour, try to fix someone else's mess out of the goodness of our hearts, hugging porcupines and sniffing skunks (something smells awry in San Francisco). I did it, others will do it, and still others will pick up when others leave off. But at the end of the day, Second Life is not mine. It is not yours, and Linden Lab has effectively demonstrated on more than one occasion that Second Life belongs to Linden Lab. This is like visiting someone's house and trying to get them to make it a more amenable place. In this case, they blatantly do not care what people think... unless, of course, they are authors of books that they have given authority to.

Second Life can survive with less of my influence, I am certain - because it is apparent that I have not had influence in the last year despite being a published author on Second Life and writing of the dirty things that Linden Lab's official Second Life books dare not mention for fear of alienating new people. Better to alienate the ones who already spend their money... it buffers the statistics and skews the data to their marketing benefit.

They do not care, why should I? Toss aside all the warm and fuzzy emotional things. I have stood toe to toe with landbot owners, I have helped Lucreza Ah and others, I have gone toe to toe with the likes of Tyrian Camillo and many other ad spam extortionists. I have spoken with Robin Linden and met with accusations that I was being unfair (how easy that is to see through...). I have seen the financial sector try to work with tools that are insufficient to do what is necessary, I have seen Linden Lab create and enforce rules that are not even in the Terms of Service. I have seen much more - I have seen a German woman lose her savings to a landbot when her machine crashed while cutting up land, hoping that she could make a few dollars so that she and her husband could have a better life. I have heard silence, deafening, from Linden Lab.

I have made a difference? No, no I have not. It would be foolish for me to expend about a year of effort on Second Life and watch them create an uneven playing field that rewards morally reprehensible behavior, encourages it, nurtures it... Is Second Life worth my time?

Of course it isn't. I have other things to do than try to help those that do not wish to be helped. You'll find me in Galt's Gulch. It is, quite frankly, time for Linden Lab to get its act together or all we are doing is documenting the fall of Second Life. My gut says that this is exactly what we are doing, but my gut also says that Linden Lab is trying to reinvent something in the hope that Linden Lab survives the crash.

Second Life Consultant