No more Google+

Back in July this year I was one of the people who got into Google+ pretty early on. I was rather excited by this. Having watched SL avatars turfed out of Facebook (although never having used it myself), and having become frustrated with Plurk, and wanting something more substantial than twitter while more social than this blog, I jumped at the chance.

And then the nymwars started.

I didn't get that involved in the nymwars, didn't really comment on them, not as me (Antony) anyway. Many others have done a far better job of commenting on the issue, and battling with it, than I ever could have. Instead my initial enthusiasm for the platform, as a way to express myself as Antony, outside of Second Life itself, in a social networking environment, waned. I generally used it less and less.

I expected my profile to get flagged pretty early on but, to my surprise, it didn't. I imagine that, to some degree, this was because my name is a pretty "ordinary" name. But, today, I found that I'd been flagged and I was presented with the usual choice. Change the name on the account to comply (presumably change it to my RL name and give proof that that is my RL name) or close the Google+ account.

I closed the Google+ account.

I guess this is giving in, giving up, giving one small victory to the side of the nymwars that detests the idea that some might want to express themselves in different ways. To those who are fighting and continue to fight the nymwars, I apologise. I'm sorry, I wish I could join you, take part, be part of the fight but... this isn't a fight I can take on.

Meanwhile, I'll concentrate on my blog and make occasional use of twitter.

New Workshop

The Z&A workshop is an important place for me in Second Life. Unsurprisingly I spend a fair bit of time there and, through its various incarnations, I've had some of my most favourite times in Second Life in it.

The most recent incarnation, which replaced the MkII workshop, was built when Shackles was first created. It's served us well for a year, even surviving being moved across the sim earlier this year, around the time that Z&A expanded.

But it did start to get a little crowded when we got into building cells -- cells are so much bigger than our normal builds and take up so much more floor space. So, when that happened, I created an extra basement as something that was tacked on the bottom. On top of that the roof was getting filled with ad-hoc created photo booths. Oh, and there was the link/unlink accident that I won't detail or Zardia might get annoyed with me. ;-)

So, anyway, yesterday, I cracked and started to throw together some prims and, before I knew it, the MkIV workshop was born. This one has 3.5 floors (three full floors and a mezzanine). The very bottom floor is still the cell building basement and the top floor is now a proper photo studio for shooting our products (one half our "traditional" background and the other half a plain black background that we're now using for some products).

The whole thing looks huge though!

It was fun to build. Normally Miss Vila is the one who throws around the big prims so this made a nice change for me.

Needs more Richard Burton

So... this guy followed me home from the SL marketplace:

Do you think Miss will let me keep him?