Protest and Banning at Burn2

For the most part, the Burn2 festival has gone well those participating. Last weekend however on Sunday October 21st, there was a protest at the event, followed by a mass banning. According to eyewitnesses, not only were those actively protesting banned from the Burn2 sims, but apparently so were passersby whom did nothing more than watch.

I was contacted about the incident by an eyewitness, saying that Burn2 artist Kandinsky Beaumont needed the help of a Saveme Oh for her exhibit. Trouble was, Saveme wasn't allowed at the Burn, "Saveme … has been banned by LEA, SL9B … she was banned from (the) Burn last year. So Kandinsky was refused. So they started a protest."

I was given a name, Marmaduke Arado, and contacted him. "We were just banned from (the) Burn," he told me, "we were staging an improvised 'protest' performance and were mass banned. Even people just watching were banned … a few just for watching. Without explanation, warning, nothing."

Saveme Oh has a blog at http://savemeoh.wordpress.com/ (very much Not Safe For Work), in which she writes about the Burn2 incident, and previous ones she was involved in. Some people commenting on them accused her of editing out certain details. In her June 24 post, she wrote, "The first day after a Secondlife break I always have the uncontrollable urge to misbehave badly."

One other blog, Apmel,  had some information. One post (Not Safe For Work), shows pictures of Kandinsky's exhibit before and after she was given a notice, "Your build as a large protest creates disharmony in our community … It damages the joy of the celebration and community spirit. It also is not within the spirit or aesthetics of this event. We have a policy of 'No Drama' within our events. Your build is dramatic because of it's size and focus. This has to change significantly … Please consider a build that will enhance the joy and celebration of Burn2 rather than damage it."

I later met up with two of the leaders of the Burn festival, EmCee Widget and Ronon Carver. EmCee refused to comment on the matter. Ronon did answer, saying she was sorry but they would not talk about these kinds of matters.

It is unknown whether or not any of those not taking part in the protest who were banned have had it reversed.

Bixyl Shuftan

Behind Bronyville’s Fall

Bronyville was up for only a few scant months before it went down, and went down hard. All signs point to Bronyville (and its co-existing sim, Derpy) being lost forever with the removal of the original owners (Overbrain Unplugged and Twinkie Swizzle), the latter of which I did an interview with while things were finishing up being built. Krypton Radio is reporting at http://kryptonradio.com/2011/07/21/woodbury-banned-a-third-time-sl-bronies-take-a-hit/ that both Overbrain and Twinkie were "ban evasion" alts of trolls/griefers, real troublemakers against Linden Lab.

I talked to a few people, and they seemed to be in agreement. In the eyes of Linden Lab, "once a griefer, always a griefer" --- meaning if these two straightened up and "went legit" on their ban-evasion accounts, they'd still get in trouble if caught no matter how many good deeds they did (such as building Bronyville, getting people interested in SL BECAUSE of Bronyville, etc).

Then I got wind that the Bronies were recovering at a new sim raised by donation money, known as Bronytown (the sim next to that, Everfree Forest, I am not sure of if that is part of the new Brony sims or not). I tracked down one of the bronies who offered an interview, and they had this to say:

[12:19] Xymbers Slade: Ok, so what can you tell me about the massive avalanche that went on with Bronyville? I've been hearing a lot of reports of different things, from an admin coup to an admin troll.

[12:20] Magenta Stars: Well, I think it was the troll. I had heard rumors, but never really made the connection myself. That Overbrain was a Troll ALT was surprising

[12:21] Magenta Stars: I've seen coups before, they're never so clean or quick as this was.

[12:21] Xymbers Slade: Did you lose a lot from Bronyville when it went down? I had a plot I'd just dumped a good 6 or 7 more weeks into when it went down.

[12:23] Magenta Stars whispers: I had a plot in Derpy that still had three weeks rent on it, and I was on the waiting list for a merchant stall. They told me I could open for business when the Arena was finished.

[12:24] Magenta Stars: Beautiful sim you have here.

[12:24] Xymbers Slade: Are you going to grab a stall or plot on the new sims? Do you think the same thing will happen, that trolls disguised as "good people" will wreck things?

[12:26] Magenta Stars: Yea! And will I worry? No. Even if i know the leaders are trolls elsewhere. Trolls don't bother me, being a furry in SL makes you have to grow a thick skin, lol.

[12:27] Xymbers Slade: Thicker than most, at any rate. Do you think this was the intention of the trolls... to build everything up and to get their "lulz" later on, knowing it would come crashing down?

[12:28] Magenta Stars: No. I don't, maybe they got some lulz out of it, maybe not. But you know they invested some significant cash into the two sims. I think it was the genuine article. Maybe I'm nieve, but I like to hope for the best =^.^= mews Happily =^.^=

[12:29] Xymbers Slade: I'd seen at the meeting where the sim was going to be named... between the bouts of noise spam from those outside, it looked like [Another Brony], who I thought was a driving force, was basically ostracized.

[12:30] Xymbers Slade: Any idea why?

[12:31] Magenta Stars: I'm not sure, by the time I came in, Bronyville was largely formed and Derpy was only weeks away. [Another Brony] seemed to me to be a quiet type. Hope he's doing well, I havent' heard from him since this all started.

[12:32] Xymbers Slade: I think that's all the questions I can think of... thanks for your perspective. I remember interviewing Twinkie for my first article on the Bronies... hard to believe that he (according to other sources) was a troll alt as well.

[12:33] Magenta Stars: Yea, he seemed pretty cool.

[12:33] Magenta Stars: and no problem. Bix told me you were doing a piece, so I thought I'd offer.


I'm expecting more troll attacks in the future. I know that much of /b/ had declared the Bronies "cancer" (they did tell them to go get their own board, which they did at ponychan.net) and they like nothing more than trolling something as "innocent" as a kids show aimed at little girls. When something this popular rebounds this quickly in the face of the trolls, it just turns into too tempting a target. I didn't lose much from my little plot when Bronyville went down (other than a couple of no-copy freebie water jugs from years ago), but I'm not going to buy another plot for rebuilding my store... not until I see things are solid and stable and hopefully troll free. I'm sure Brony Town when finished will be a nice place to visit, but I'm not going to live there.

Xymbers Slade

Editor's note: Reading the Krypton article, I noticed the name connected to the alt "Overbrain Unpluged" was a familiar one: Intlibber Brautigan. Sorry to say the SLN veterans in Second Life Newser are all too acquainted with him.

Gaming Hall Owner Says Linden Lab is Banning “Autoplay” Feature

I was contacted by a friend this week, whom had gotten into the Zyngo business. He told me he had a “huge” story concerning gaming in Second Life, “in a nut shell, Zyngo went to an online configuration and now LL is using said online config info with the consent of the maker to bust game places that have not updated to the new rules. ... nasty story really. ... big customers of Zyngo have been forced to take off autoplay as they are high profile. Low profile places have not gotten notice, not made changes yet. As a nasty side effect of the online configuration, unintended but not surprising, the owner of the licence server can ’out’ people who have not turned off auto or done what LL has said to do, and is ratting out the little guys to save big customers and also earn brownie points with LL.”

He later wrote some more information on a notecard. While I don’t usually post anonymous comments, I know the person well enough to know he is sincere in his observations and comments.



Big game halls are going under quickly after LL handed down a ban on auto play (where the game will place the numbers for you), and the devil/angel feature, ( I will touch on this later).

One big hall owner selling off their games was quoted "it is just not worth it, the hassle, players do not play Zyngo (one of SL's most popular games) without autoplay" . Many other games are in operation in SL, and many need to be adjusted, this is all to boost the skill component of the games played for money in world. Game halls wishing to sell Zyngo in this current market can expect to get just 500L a game, this is a transfer no copy game with a license, new they are 2400L.

With all the updates and changes, warnings from the creator group of Zyngo have been coming fast and furious, this has added to the paranoia as this game uses an online configuration where anyone with web privileges can see/change your settings, and trust me in this environment you do NOT want Big Brother watching you.

Now for what LL is doing about the skill element, I personally do not think it is a bad thing, however it does stand to reason that not just the devil has to go but ANY free points that do not have a skill component directly attached to them, (you could have a game where 400% of your score comes from a random symbol, with no player action attached), these points currently come in many forms.

2X,3X or any other X: This is a hidden symbol that is randomly uncovered , it normally doubles your points but it can do much more, with no intentional skill attached, yes a player is trying to uncover a number and the side effect is the 2X, but the player is not skillfully or knowingly uncovering that symbol, the random 2X is just as decisive to the game as angels and devils and currently the way most games are set up, it is a total accident when you get it.

Diamonds/Angels: Any free points that take no action on the players part, these are NOT legal by any skill game standard. These types of points influence the main skill component of the game. Bonus rounds: Some games at the end you have a bonus round, in most cases this is just a random click on the players part and it totally decides the outcome, if these points in any way are used to decide the skill component, again they are not lawful by any set of skill game rules I can find.

Thanks for your time.

Sorry I wish I could pen my name to this piece but Big Brother really IS watching.

He told me when word of this goes around, he may take a hit in the short run, but should avoid trouble if Linden Labs reverses its ban.

Bixyl Shuftan