well, we paid out the last refund and that’s about it for sl for a bit. i thought that selling $1000 sim for $110 would make up for an $89 USD refund, but alas, it did not in the eyes of that person.  makes me feel really dumb for not selling all the sims for market value, oh well – live and learn and be stoopid. just makes an extra bitter taste, but time passes and i’ll be back isl in a while (i did go check out my kooky hobbit house though) =)

right now i have such a wonderful opportunity to be in charge of developing 16 sims for public use.  that’s a really cool thing in my book (but not in my facebook!)

the iliveisl estate had many free places for people to use, but those free places cost too much money in the long run. and the really cool thing is that i get to share that development with some really talented people. currently DreamWalker and Nickola are working like mad to add their special, and talented, touches to Enclave Harbor (i wish i had a website to send you to to learn more *jabs subQuark in the ribs*)  =p

the great thing with super talented people like DW and Nicki is that the more free reign you allow, the more amazing the builds are.  fortunately, subbie has full faith in me and in both of them. i can’t wait till we connect to Reaction Grid‘s world and share what we have with others (actually, i can wait a little bit – so many things being built atm) =)

Enclave Harbor is all about things that will, hopefully, help others; from new people exploring what all this virtual world stuff is, to places for little kids and their teachers to explore.  the thought of little kids checking out the harbor is pretty cool (lol, if you haven’t figured it out yet, i am very much my inner child on the blog and in-world). when i fly i am brought back to that joy and wonder that i had as a little kid. you know – where anything is possible? i think many virtual world peeps are like that. now that doesn’t mean i am a spaz all the time, i can focus for brief moments! (well, actually, i am rather spazzy, but that is true in and out of world!)  =D

anyway (ener <– goes off on tangents all the time), Enclave Harbor is being designed to help new people, like corporate people, get a handle on some basics. i remember when i first started in second life. oh lord, i couldn’t even texture a wall, i ended up plastering Sunnygirl’s face on every prim in like a 50 prim house! it’s easy to forget that no one knows how to do that stuff at first. and we never, ever look down at someone that does not know how to rez a box

after all, that very first thing to learn – to rez a box – is the most important step. without that, nothing could be built! so it’s pretty humbling and important (to us) to foster a positive learning environment

virtual worlds – it’s way more than just land. there are too many failure stories from second life of companies getting a sim or two and then waiting for all this awesomeness to happen

it just doesn’t work like that

you have to have passionate people that are willing to put themselves out there and invest some real time. Linden Lab is really good about providing land. but they don’t help people learn about virtual worlds and what it takes to succeed. they even dumped the Mentor’s programme and their rl business development people don’t seem to have a clue (i met with a real business development manager at Linden Lab in San Fran in the fall of 2008). maybe really HUGE client’s get treated diff?

i don’t want to see another virtual world provider make that same mistake. i mean come on, M Linden can’t even say hello to us on twitter? if you can’t say “hey” on twitter, you for sure have no communication skills or absolutely could give a crap about your customers. over at Reaction Grid, the CEO, CTO, EVO, etc, all say hello and actually will carry on meaningful convos! (lol, EVO stands for extra virgin olive oil)  =D

Reaction Grid stands a great chance to not overlook it’s customers as it grows.  it’s funny that overlooking customers is actually an issue.  life must be really good at Linden Lab!

both subbie and i have tons of passion for what virtual worlds can do and we express that by being practitioners and evangelists. i blog and flickr and twitter like a big doofus on how awesome vws are and even make a few video tutorials and subbie goes and speaks about how vws are great for corporate eLearners. so had Linden Lab just tossed a bone with some acknowledgement (“nice video you made that intro-ed Pathfinder Linden at that conference” or “sheesh Ener, that’s a lot of flickr pics, especially about martinis”, we both would have continued singing its praises and using it as the poster child for all things virtual). we don’t want praise, just a “hey, nice to have you on board” and for $36k a year, ya think once in a while you could do that?)

but you can only knock your head against that nonsense for so long. i guess it must rock to be able to piss off your biggest evangelists like Jokay or subQuark and not worry about your company’s health

it’s too bad that many companies don’t actually care about their customers (think facebook and their CEO saying that your privacy is not important)

what happened to being decent? maybe you can’t have a successful business and be caring? maybe avatars don’t need to be treated as humans, after all i am totally fake . . . =p

oh well, we won’t stop sharing our joy in what we find so fun and awesome about virtual worlds  =)

so come check out Enclave Harbor coming to Reaction Grid very soon! *goes back to making a lighthouse*

we are taking aim to promote Reaction Grid like mad!