Archives for May 2008

ABC Island has had an eventful time in Second Life over the past year or more. From an Australian viewpoint, it’s been a real role model for a community-driven Second Life presence. Core to that are the ABC Admins, who’ve put in countless hours developing the island, organising activities and dealing with the inevitable griefers or other troublemakers.

That core group appears to be now in conflict, if the below statement from former ABC Admin Sakkano Imako is anything to go by. An important note: a name has been removed plus one inflammatory sentence – the removal of both doesn’t detract from the overall story and protects particular individuals from unverifiable claims that would impact on their reputations.

We’ve contacted the ABC for comment on this story and will publish their response when we receive it.

==========
“Dear ABC Admin,

It has come to my attention that ABC is essentially in the midst of a coup d’état. How have I come to this conclusion? Simply put, I cannot fully accept that all changes that have happened by the hand of [name removed] have been done with the approval of either ABC or the owners of the Laneways parcel. How is it that for previous months, suggestions on how to change these areas were answered with a “I can’t do that because I don’t have permission?” Yet, the galleries have sprung up in very little time without any real consultation to the admin as a whole. Nor have we, as admin, seen approval from the company for these changes.

I also suspect this because of the sudden incursion of Big Pond members. It is my belief that this coup d’état has occurred because people from Big Pond have thought that if they can use ABC as a venue, they may gain prestige.

Now, I have some questions:

Can someone tell me why the signs that discouraged weapons, commerce, and sex have been removed? Second Life is not exclusive to only people who speak English. How can we be expected to enforce rules on people who do not understand English?

Please, someone tell me why ABC is not advertising itself or it’s programming, and yet it’s being made to house art? It is my thought that our new admin friends have landed to make ABC nothing more than an extention of Big Pond. And they are only using ABC to advance their own desires, rather than helping ABC’s presence be felt in the virtual world, and potentially internationally.

Please someone explain to me the unbecoming behavior of some Admins taking a “hands off” approach. Why are admins turning their back as people walk in with weapons, sexual objects, LL contraband, and commerce items? I would have almost half expected some of our current admin members to have posed sultry against the Hippie Pay kiosk I returned. A kiosk in which someone makes money off residents who don’t understand how those objects actually work. How can this behavior potentially benefit ABC? It does not and it will not.

When people write out incident reports, when other admin refuse to accept these cards, does this not demonstrate a lack of concern for the ABC Island? And what does it say to new admin who are actually trying to do their jobs proper? This it totally unacceptable behavior on so many levels.

In short, monkeys have started to run the zoo. I only hope the company will take a look at these horrific events and decided to scrap the island and start over with a new batch of people who are less likely to become slaves to greed and over inflated egos.

And because I believe that such monkeys smell to high heaven, I am excusing myself. I want nothing to do with such unprofessional and unbecoming behavior. I only stayed as long as I did because it was bad form to just up and leave after coming back from a vacation. But if no one else seems interested in doing the dirty work, I refuse to become the muckraker to such people who don’t want to do all the work expected of admins.

I wish to suggest that some of the admin start working, or else nothing will be accomplished. Wandering around and looking pretty is hardly helping things. Admin are given their privileges because they are to help out in every way. There are no art directors, curators, or assistants. There are only admin. Admin must work to keep the sim going. If admin don’t work for the sim, then the sim fails. Residents can operate as those things mentioned, but being admin is first and foremost.

In conclusion, the sim is no longer what it was supposed to be and the system that was in place to help it run properly has been broken by individuals who apparently do not understand the responsibilities and duties granted to them as being admin. If it is not remedied soon, we can expect more problems.

The easiest solution at this time, that would best benefit the ABC company, would be to scrap the island as it is and start over. It needs new people who are interested in seeing ABC become a sim that promotes the COMPANY rather than the INDIVIDUAL. It needs people who will conduct official business and duties in a more professional and friendly manner.

–Sakkano Imako
Graduate of Indiana Business College
Associate of Applied Science in Business Management
American based Second Life resident
Former ABC Admin”
==========

It’s hard to gauge the level of conflict within the admin group (Disclosure: I am a member of the ABC Admin group, albeit a quite inactive one aside from taking an interest in covering Australian events in Second Life). My take is that any group of people working together for an extended period of time is likely to run into conflict, particularly as that group grows.

It’s also further reinforcement that virtual worlds contain a lot of the same interpersonal challenges that the real world does. It illustrates the difficulties posed for any business who worries about their brand being muddied by the inherent uncertainties or user-created worlds like Second Life. Those same difficulties however, are some of the most fascinating aspects of a virtual world existence.

Update: Fellow Aussie Second Life resident has some detailed thoughts on ABC Island as well.