Someone's Karma is About to Hit the Fan

As you may have read from my post from March 18 (Giving & Getting), Dr Who fandom in Second Life has its pro's and cons.  With the help of that network I was able to determine which TARDIS system best suited my needs - as well as carry off its functions with just the right level of immersion.

I also wrote about the sense of community in some places and lack thereof in others.  These were all based on personal observations without any favoritism or personal gain; of course based on those experiences I have made my choice of favorites for one aspect or another.

Well, you can understand my surprise when someone shared this link with me on the premise of some big exposé over TARDIS sim by victor1st Mornington.  I was shocked by what I'd read, but because so much of it was libelous and written out of personal bias.

I felt that most supporters of TARDIS sim and its goings on responded poorly in several comments. Let's face it: not everyone who writes on the Internet can write. So with a couple of exceptions their responses amounted to rhetorical drivel.  I had an answer of my own as an objective party, but Victor1st has locked the blog's commenting capability.

So here are some facts to set things straight...

The claim that the TARDIS (aka New London) community leaders have tried to pull people away from Katrina is untrue.  Kat, Laredo, Saxondale, etc al have never brought this up to me, publicly in general local chat, or in group activities. 

New London's activities and interests have kept to their products and own sim's events plus - of course - Dr Who and related fandom.  That's a full plate and I doubt they have anything to fear about losing their support base. They have a community and it's very nice.  The recent memorials for Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen were heartfelt and done out of a need and not for any petty competition.

As for minors, note that before seeing Victor1st's post, I had already blogged how it was so much more prevalent in the Katrina-based Dr Who group that I just had to leave it. The group chat was at times an embarrassment.  You'll get minors everywhere since Dr Who is technically a Kid's Show by British standards (yes, I just said something about America's).

You may also remember from my blog post how alienated I felt on Katrina (I've since learned that I'm not alone apparently), and no one is around on Who Island most of the time.  So there's a lot of ranting over a community presence which simply does not exist.  I'm sure Katrina's owners may be nice themselves, but their presences aren't always what people see...

...I don't think. Since that blog post I ventured up to a group one evening who were clearly NOT trying to blow eachother up. After 10 minutes of what I thought was reasonably sentient banter, I was told that they had enough of typing and were going back to voice.  Seems they were just tolerating me.  Back to square one with Katrina: in to buy something then leave.  Maybe in time I'll activate the RP setting and land there to refuel by the Cardiff Millennium Center.

The ranting against Ebak's radio listening parties was way out of line, and I'm afraid Victor1st has a responsibility to retract and apologize for any statements he's made about them.  They are not a project coordinated by the owners of New London, who simply provide the space and access rights for those who do.  Furthermore, they never ever claimed to have exclusive permission to play Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas.  Just as Victor1st said in his own blog: anyone in Second Life is authorized to play them as long as there is a link back to their website.  There most certainly is in the listening room, and all banners and posters displaying the radio listening events prominently display the Big Finish logo.  This is by fans for fans, and should not be seen as anything else.

I can't say what sort of support experience Victor1st or friends of his may have experienced with a New London Systems (NLS) product, because one of NLS' own officers recommended Hands of Omega for the features I wanted in a TARDIS.  He objectively gave me a rundown on how each system functioned and features available so that I could make an informed decision.  You have to admire right there the integrity and objectivity to help someone over hardselling one's own product. They certainly have enough people using their system who could badmouth them anywhere and don't.  NLS announce updates and upgrades regularly. It's more than I can say for my previous system.

As long as they make me feel at home in New London and throw their club parties and other fun events, as well as give fans a place to gather for special occasions, they'll get my Sim donations & Radio tips and support as a fan.  They've earned it; none of them are personal friends.  To me they're the best haven for Doctor Who fans in Second Life at this time.

TARDIS sim's management were just recently made aware of it, and promptly went into lockdown with a number of disclaimers. Can't blame them under the circumstances.  They didn't name names, I'll give them credit for that, but for the first time since I've known them, they had to refer to communities outside of their own. 

I certainly don't have any personal grudge against Victor1st Mornington over this.  Something happened and he's behaving very human.  However he must address the issue and instigator directly.  If he's had some sort of Dalek vs Cyberman bitchfest with Kat Kassner then fine.  The blog post was a lot of acid spit out over a lot of little things, but also based on geography and guilt-by-association.  The person who gave me the link probably took Victor1st's word without knowing first hand the facts.  Many time-honored expressions apply now as they did in their time: "Two wrongs don't make a right," "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," "With great power comes great responsbility." It's all a matter of rising above one's gut reactions and doing the right thing.  He's offended people who never did anything to him; he's made false accusations which hurt strangers.  It does matter, and in time these actions will come back to haunt him.  Maybe he can take that breath, rise above those gut impulses and do the right thing.  He can't make Katrina's social circle look any better to me; I can't expect that from anybody and I'm certainly not a consensus; people like that need a place too. But someone's credibility has flown out the window, and as more people find out the validity of what's been written, the dominoes will tumble.