SL's Spaceflight Museum Returned to the Grid After Community Outcry & Linden Intervention

Click here for a direct teleport to Spaceport Alpha, an entry point to the International Spaceflight Museum, because it is now once again back in Second Life. This after the sims were put in limbo due to various reasons. But thanks to "the community response in the blogosphere, and the rational reaction of a higher-up Linden," as ISM's Katherine "Kat Lemieux" Prawl puts it, the museum was quickly returned to the grid last night.

Now, Kat tells me, the hard part begins:

"It feels very good, if a little intimidating," she says. "There's a lot of things we need to do, organizationally and 'physically', including new exhibits. I'm a little apprehensive about getting back into the swing of things to the detriment of my first life, but it's a good feeling to have the results of all those years of work back in the light of day."

So good news for ISM and its many supporters, and I'm glad this blog and others helped raise awareness before the Museum became permanently lost. At the same time, it's also true that other SL sims are in similar jeopardy for reasons of their own, and a community outcry may not always be there for a last-minute intercession.

Bottom pic courtesy Kat. Pictured from left: Patio Plasma, Jenika Connolly, Kat Lemieux, Emileigh Starbrook, Becca Vichan.

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Comments

[Masami Kuramoto]

It's great that the ISM is safe for now, but let's not forget that there are other projects in similar troubles. Linden Lab have pulled a successful publicity stunt here, but favoritism is not a sustainable customer policy.

[Ezra]

Exactly. Any intervention on behalf of Linden Lab other than outright public policy change is just a stunt to save face.

Good for this sim, but a smack in the face to all the ones of similar circumstances that died quietly.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Despite my lobbying on behalf of the ISM, I see Ezra's and Masami's point. The situation recalls every "playing favorite" accusation against the US Federal Government.

The ISM had a lobby, and many others do not. Until LL comes up with a consistent policy for sims in arrears, if not an affordable model for tier, these situations will continue.

Anyone ever considered that the much-vaunted "other projects" at the Lab are less a way to ignore SL than a means to garner new revenue streams? Then LL could lower tier in an attempt to revitalize their signature product.

Now that would be a welcome change from the Lab.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I remember my first experience with 3D virtual worlds: Ultima Online. Among other innovative features, it allowed gamemasters on each server to "bless" certain player structures with decorations and functions that were unobtainable otherwise.

Did this raise cries of favoritism? Oh, absolutely. But it also encouraged and rewarded excellence, innovation and community service, and the net benefit to the community far outweighed the incessant whining of the terminally jealous.

So from my perspective, the appropriate response to Linden Lab's decision is to say thank you, well done, and please keep an eye open for other opportunities to intervene to help preserve builds that are of value to diversity and quality of life. Despite the inevitable cynicism, such moves do help improve the Lab's reputation.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Correction: I misspoke. Ultima Online was 2D. It just felt 3D due to the human dimension :)

[Will Szymborska]

Sorry, I went here and saw a bunch of primmy stuff rezzed in 2006. In another week the place will be forgot again and the owners will complain about how they can't afford to keep this 'virtual museum' up and running. Its their responsibility to pay their own tier. And if the place isn't getting any donations and no ones really spending time there its probably because its boring and outdated.

Maybe if I yell at enough people Linden Lab will pay for my region too after I skip paying my tier. In Secondlife you pay to stay, otherwise you don't survive very long. 'Public Museum' or not, no one should be exempt from the rules just because a bunch of people moan about how they can't afford their full region of prims. 2006 and 2007 have come and gone. You could get more information by looking at REAL spaceships on Wikipedia or some other website then milling around in a prim-choked region. Maybe 2% of Secondlife users REALLY care about education and museums of this sort in Secondlife, otherwise, no. Nobody really cares. They would rather go to a REAL museum. Why would the IRS ever sponsor a virtual museum anyway? They already pay for enough real ones.

Call my insensitive, conceited and 'selfish' to go against the grain on this one... I think the fact LL would do the service of bringing back someones region if they whine enough (after not paying their bills required of them) is absurd. Making the money to host a region is your own problem. It isn't the business of LL or the IRS to pick up the bill.

[Ehrman Digfoot]

As much as I appreciate the display of community support in this instance and do hope that non-profit sims can find an affordable way to stay on the grid, I have to say I agree 100% with Will on this one. I just visited the spaceport and it really is an entirely archaic primy mess. If LL's action was inconsistent with its policies to other users, well I think favoritism should be displayed to those new content creators who are actually trying to bring something new and innovative to the grid.

[Lissa Pinion]

I'm gonna play devils advocate here...why is this sim any diff than any other sim that doesn't pay for the sim they choose to rent from LL? I had two sims, I paid my tiers on time or they were taken and my acct suspended within a week or two of being late.

You don't pay the tiers for months, I feel like LL was pretty generous to not poof it after a month in arrears. They are a for profit company and while we don't all agree w/ their policies, we have the choice to play or walk.

[Kim]

Here's how I feel. LL should have waived the $1000 fee anyway out of pure decency and should do that for any owners who wish to restore a sim that had been closed. To refuse to restore a sim (and the $295 monthly revenue that goes along with it) is sheer idiocy, both for optics and economics.

It shouldn't take a public outcry to get a sim back, and LL was foolish to demand $1000 to restore it in the first place. Maybe LL is now rethinking this policy? Probably not.

[Nelson Jenkins]

LL should not have the $1000 fee in the first place, but if you default on an invoice in the real world, you won't be able to do business with them anymore unless you want to pay the debt (often plus interest). Forcing them to pay another $1000 to start up a new sim is hardly an issue.

[Stone Semyorka]

Some of the shortsighted comments here remind me of the people in RL who speak against "wasteful" government spending on things like science museums, art galleries, Revolutionary War and Civil War battleground recreations, even public libraries. Thank goodness most of us like social and cultural memories and want to invest in memorials to things that are crucial to remember.

Nostalgia drives us to recreate the absent past, to commemorate it. The virtual souvenirs and social memorabilia that people build in Second Life authenticate our RL experiences and represent the survival of events through transmission of the narrative to future generations.

Congratulations to the International Spaceflight Museum folks for getting it back together for a while and to the responsive leadership at Linden Lab for doing the right thing when called on.

[Masami Kuramoto]

"Some of the shortsighted comments here..."

"most of us like social and cultural memories and want to invest in memorials to things that are crucial to remember."

Short-sighted was the idea to build the ISM inside a privately owned walled garden where for most of us it fails to qualify as a memorial worth investing in. Call up the IRS for details.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

The issue for me is the arbitrary nature of the initial Linden decision. They have a history of picking "winners," such as when they brought back Svarga. That a lower-level staffer could claim "oh we don't have the backup" was just lazy, and the $1000 fee was an insult to a long term customer whose tier would more than pay for that in 3 months.

The Lindens clearly need a long-term plan for this sort of situation.

As for the build, so "primmy" and "2006"? It is still good enough for we stylistically challenged, helmet-haired educators. We aren't so picky. Look at our avies, for goodness sakes!

At the same time, Masami is correct: this particular walled-garden is no place for nonprofits. In OpenSim, they'd have had an OAR and lower tier. If a grid closed, they could move, or host the ISM on their own server and link it the Hypergrid.

I've urged Kat to investigate an OpenSim option, and I plan to join their group to help with that transition, if they choose to make it. Meanwhile, they need to make off-world copies of all they can, then rebuild the rest in a cheaper place more friendly to sharing IP among consenting parties.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Okay, my math sucks...pay for the $1K in FOUR months.

[Hiro Pendragon]

"Short-sighted was the idea to build the ISM inside a privately owned walled garden where for most of us it fails to qualify as a memorial worth investing in. Call up the IRS for details."

ISM was crowd-sourced *because* of the platform's capabilities. ISM would not have been *made* elsewhere.

But yes, OpenSim is now available. If only we were able to back up our content without having to prove *every single texture and script* was our own, even IF each one we have full rights to.

Really, Linden Lab needs to change its TOS and make copy/transferable permissive objects allowed to be copied not just manually, but by automated process for export.

[foneco zuzu]

To be honest, after being for a month on OS grid, I really don't care about Sl sims and i can only advise All, to move there!
The Guitar museum already did it long ago.
Amd to pretend to minimize Open sims is a big mistake, lot's of myths are not really true (Lack of good skins, good scripts and so on).
If only one think it lacks, Havoc physics!
But Npc's are a reality as well community spirit!
And for those who think Os grid don't have sex, well... Im there, lol!