New World Notes

As Anti-LGBT Hate Increases Across the Real World, Many Still Celebrate Pride Month in Second Life & Other Virtual Worlds

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Teal Aurelia offers a powerful reminder of why Pride month exists. On Monday, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay law that makes it a capital crime. Before anyone thinks Uganda is particularly backwards, this is the work of American evangelist Scott Lively. There is a new moral panic overtaking the real world, filled with fear of gay and trans people. Moral panics do not last forever, but they do incalculable harm while they hold sway. 

With the real world is rife with these dangers, it’s no surprise that many find themselves most free to express their true identity in the virtual world. As I wrote last year, the trans community is remarkably large and supprtive in Second Life:

The publisher, Linden Lab, promotes LGBT friendly communities in their Destination Guide. This is a corporate signal that the community is welcome and integral to Second Life, not an underground culture, but community embraced by the company. In search there are 694 places that identify themselves with trans in their keywords. There are also over 500 results for groups. (Though a few of those are unrelated to gender, such as one called the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.) This indicates a lively, vibrant trans community in Second Life. 

One of the groups is for the Transgender Resource Center which has a in-world gathering place where they have discussions on topics in the news and have call-boards telling visitors who is online at the moment to offer help. Their Facebook page is accessible whether you use Facebook or not. They also have a secure Discord group where there are always people to talk to.  

Many if not most virtual worlds have similar communities. Hamlet recently shared a survey of the VRChat community, suggesting that nearly 1 in 5 VRChat users are Trans/non-binary, or otherwise outside traditional cis male/female categories.

For more virtual world pics celebrating the beginning of Pride month, click on:

Visits to Controversial Bonnie Bots Website Displaying SL User Data Drops to 26K Per Month -- Likely ~5000 Unique Visitors

Here's an interesting footnote to the story of Bonnie Bots, the web site that collects and displays Second Life user data gleaned from in-world bots -- a practice so controversial and provoking so much outrage, Linden Lab had several internal conversations and debates about it, posted a new policy statement, and even added new tools for landowners to block bots.

Hardly anyone has actually ever visited the site. And even less so since the controversy began.

 

Linden Lab Adds Bot-Blocking Tools for SL Landowners, Carefully-Worded Policy Warning SL Data Collectors; Bonnie Bots Replies With Curious Meme

Several months after Bonnie Bots brought enormous Sturm und Drang to the Second Life community, Linden Lab has added tools for landowners to block bots from their property -- and posted a warning to collectors of Second Life user data like, well, Bonnie Bots.

The updated tool is "deny_bots", and as that suggests, when the setting for that is switched to On, "all scripted agents that are not explicitly listed in the estate’s Allowed Access list will be denied access to all of the regions within the Estate."

As for the warning, it's available here in Linden Lab's Scripted Agent Policy.

"Read this before considering collecting data in SL for use outside of SL," as Linden Lab Infosec head Soft Linden put it warningly, "or if you are a resident who wants to understand and assert your rights regarding third-party sites and tools."

Tyche Shepherd (pictured), who uses bots to gather data for her much-read Grid Survey land analytics site, has an ambivalent reaction to this change.

"I’m surprised it's taken this long," she tells me. "Scripted agent settings were introduced in 2009. In some ways its a shame but I fully understand why the Lab has introduced the ability to block access, though it may have been more flexible to allow or block at the region level rather than estate. Personally it doesn’t impact my Grid Survey weekly online region surveys, as these don’t require physical visits." However, she adds, it does prevent her from doing sampling surveys she once conducted.

The wording of the Scripted Agent Policy is curious. It represents Linden Lab's "policy" on bots and data collection, but is also somewhat toothless. It states that using bots to artificially boost traffic is against the company's TOS:

Bonnie Bots Are Basically the Chinese Gov't Spy Balloons of Second Life

I am still waiting on an announcement update from the developers of Bonnie Bots, the highly controversial project that collects and publishes publicly accessible Second Life user data on the web. In the meantime, I've been wondering how to quantify all the controversy over Bonnie Bots, when other data collecting bots have garnered far less outrage. 

And then the Chinese Communist Party were caught floating a spy balloon over US soil.

Causing much of the American public to collectively freak out. And that reaction also seemed out of whack, because whatever data the balloon gets is a relatively minor form of surveillance, against far more pervasive and intrusive projects that generate way less outrage. (Hello, TikTok.)

But this exchange between KCRW's Madeline Brand and New York Times security expert David Sanger explained why the reaction is so different:

Madeline Brand
And so the fact that we can see [the balloon], we get all outraged over it. But as you say, this kind of surveillance and scooping up of personal data and all sorts of technological spying has been going on between our two countries and other countries. Of course, Russia comes to mind and. And yet, this balloon story has really had sticking power.

David Sanger
Because you could see it and because it's a physical intrusion on our sovereignty, and people react to a physical intrusion of our sovereignty more than they react to a cyber intrusion on our sovereignty.

Emphasis mine. Because, yes: The Bonnie Bots are basically acting like CCP spy balloons hovering over the virtual world of Second Life.

Bonnie Bots' spokesperson Skyler Pancake agrees with that analogy:

Bonnie Bots Update: Avatar Search Function Removed from Website After Discussion With Linden Lab; Expect More Updates Soon

Here's the latest update to Bonnie Bots, the data-hoovering bots which collect publicly available Second Life user information and publish it to the web:

The website no longer has the Avatar Search function, a feature which caused the most controversy and contention among the SL community.

This removal comes after the Bonnie Bots team had yet another conversation with Linden Lab. However, this reportedly wasn't done due to any policy violation:

"Linden Lab has never required us to make any changes to the website," as spokesperson Skyler Pancake tells me. "Suggestions have been made by Linden Lab which have provided additional insight, but any changes made have been decided by our team internally."

This is hardly the last word in this saga, however. In response to the user protest, Linden Lab just posted (a few hours ago) an update on the official blog:

Why Bonnie Bots Attract Backlash Across Second Life, While Grid Survey Bots Do Not: Tyche's Take

Pictured: Tyche with one of her data-collecting bots

As we watch the controversy over Bonnie Bots roil in angry comments across the Second Life media ecosystem, I've been curious about a mysterious discrepancy:

Grid Survey has been using bots to collect and display Second Life sim and user data for well over 10 years. Run by Tyche Shepherd, it's attracted very little controversy among the community; indeed, many SLers eagerly await her regularly summation of the latest data on community forums.

Why so much appreciation for Grid Survey, and so much outrage over Bonnie Bots?

"I think its a matter of perceptions," Tyche tells me. "From very early on when I started the project, I realized there was a lot more data I could collect including avatar information, but I really didn't want to collect things which were not required for the main task, which in my case, was measuring and monitoring the size of the grid."

Another reason might be that the Bonnie Bots don't look like "bots", and from a distance, look like a standard fashionista avatar. That's led some to fear that Bonnie is an alt "spying" on them.

"Ah an Uncanny Valley hypothesis," Tyche says, when I suggest this idea. "It's probably more the frequency of visiting -- I'm sure a lot of observations are just records in Visitor Lists."

That's another big difference -- Bonnie Bot visits are seriously incessant, compared to Tyche's bots:

 

Bonnie Bots, Explained: Team Behind Controversial Second Life Data Tracker Respond to Feedback, Also Notes: We're Hardly the Only Ones Collecting Public Avatar Data

Last night I teleported to a cozy patio with a firepit on a tiny asteroid to talk with the team of Bonnie Bots, the little Second Life user data website causing enormous controversy across the Second Life community. Since the imbroglio flared up, they have updated the site's homepage with this disclosure:

 

Information about Second Life should be freely accessible by all. We intend to make previously obscured information available to all residents, enable open use of the information, and expand available toolsets to further content creation.  All information collected and made available is publicly accessible and is not, and never will be, utilized for any monetary gain. We support individual privacy and will never attempt to obtain information not contained within or relevant to Second Life.

 

"We understand there are people upset about us releasing our data publicly," as team spokesperson Skyler Pancake explains. "However, people need to understand there are individuals and groups collecting this data secretly. Anyone with a little effort can easily collect this information and include it in seemingly harmless objects. The concern shouldn't be over us releasing this information publicly but who else is privately maintaining such databases and not informing anyone."

 

As the team and I chatted on the asteroid, one of the Bonnie Bots itself primly sat in silence. They warned me to take a picture of her quickly, because she was programmed to go back on her rounds across the Second Life grid soon.

 

While the Bonnie Bots team has bore the brunt of this controversy, they wanted to make it clear that they are hardly the only people collecting data on Second Life users -- and how much is already publicly accessible for people to collect off them:

 

 

Who's Afraid of Second Life's Data Gathering Bonnie Bots? (Comment of the Week)

Above: A Bonnie bot, tirelessly on bot patrol

There's been lots of interesting conversation and debate spurred by my post on BonnieBots, the new website tracking genuine Second Life activity. While Bonnie's bots don't violate any Linden Lab policy that I'm aware of, the sheer amount of information that both her avatar and web-based bots are able to collect and surface on the site has generated much surprise and controversy (including in comments here).

Reader Kate Nova argues that much of the pushback is based on a very understandable distrust of surveillance provoked by very real abuses by the Internet giants:

I was surprised and disappointed to discover that there's so much hating on them. SL can be narrow and intolerant in so many ways. Ban Lines and Security Orbs make the idyllic SL mainland into an untraversable minefield of hate and GTFO-ness.

Obviously, I'm not the arbiter of anyone else's security and privacy concerns. If you feel that your parcel needs ban lines, or a 10-second security orb, or that the stuff in your profile is private info, it's not my call to dispute that. I kinda wish it were my call, because I think all of these diminish the SL experience, but SL or Physical World, it is, of course, not my call. And it shouldn't be, no matter how frustrated they make me.

Surveillance Capitalism as heavily practiced by Google & Facebook have rightly made everyone security and privacy conscious. Or paranoid. Ironically, if we ever do regulate this, it will be after Google & Facebook already have enough data to control us in perpetuity. Any future regulations will more likely serve to lock out competition and cement these giants in place. On this topic I recommend Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff and Zucked by Roger McNamee.

Some concern has been raised that Bonnie's bots also pull data from user profiles available in search, but Kate argues this is not the intrusion some say it is -- and that overall, the site is incredibly valuable:

The Community-Made Train Systems of Second Life Are Over 15 Miles Long -- Take This Map to Start Riding!

This is a pretty amazing map to the community-made train systems cutting across the Second Life mainland (click here for high res version, also available for free in the Marketplace), created by Rydia Lacombe, and updated from her 2021 edition. If they look longer and more complex than many real life train systems, you're right there -- they're longer, Rydia tells me, than the system in a major city in Scotland.

"Calculations in 2014 estimated that there was about 30 kilometers of track on the mainland. I would assume that this number is roughly correct - with the main line at least 12 km!" Rydia tells me. "This means that the SLRR Main Line is larger than the Glasgow subway system - which is fairly neat."

Anyone can ride these at any time, by the way -- just get a train (there's free models) drag it onto the track, and it'll snap to the rails, and you're ready to go. (Info below.)  I just took a leisurely train ride with a famous YouTuber, and can confirm it's a cool way to enjoy the rolling scenery while having a fun chat.

"I just like drawing maps," Rydia tells me, grinning. "I used to be told off in elementary school because it wasn't 'normal'. I just think it's neat."

There's also a broader motivation for her: 

London in Second Life Flooded With Mourners & Well-Wishers At News of Queen Elizabeth's Death; UPDATE: Added SLImage Tributes

As news of Queen Elizabeth's death spreads across the globe, mourners in the virtual world of Second Life have been converging into London City, a sprawling island devoted to the UK's capital. I have tried over the last hour to take photos of the impromptu memorial, but as avatars keep teleporting into London, the surroundings continue to be a blurry as actual London in the worst fog imaginable.

You can see them in the screenshot here, green dots indicating users from around the world, piling into the town square, where the British flag has been lowered to half-mast, and the audio stream has been changed from the usual Britpop music to somber songs played on piano and pan flute.

"May she be in God's arms half hour before the devil knows she's gone," announces a mourner in chat.

"There is music on the stream now," says someone who helps manage London. "I hope it is fitting. I'm raising a glass to Her Majesty The Queen!"

As is often the case, the serendipitous mourning is basically SLers gathering and chatting together in the wake of monumental offline news at a virtual world location with some mirror relationship to that news. (See also: Mourners outside the virtual recreation of the Eiffel Tower, after a terrorist attack in Paris.) 

And as also befits Second Life, the arriving mourners include Superman in a Batman helmet, a sentient dog, and a humanoid fox (not to be confused), along with various supermodels. Many or most are from the UK, but mourners and well-wishers from outside Britain are arriving too: