FIC 2.0

Have you heard?! FIC 2.0 is out! I knew it as soon as I twittered it and then Jeremy V. put it on his title! Like FIC 1.0, it's hard to define -- you gotta just feel it. But you know it when you see it. FIC 2.0 is simply improved -- but of course, laggy and a bitch at times, too. Sculpted, even Voiced, but...a pain in the ass and basically broken in an essential way. Still, it works to hold the whole SL enchilada together, and the Lindens haven't come up with anything that works better -- yet. Watch for an SL Views coming soon to the Lab near you on June 29 for more FIC 2.0 sightings!

FIC 2.0 are the folks who run things -- and get paid even RL dollars! They have metaversal agency jobs; gigs on panels at game conferences; fabulous in-world businesses with gadzillion amounts of money; power, prestige, and Philip's name on the speed-dial AND a certain Linden's secret Twitter identity (heh, and you thought he was too cool to tweet, bah). But...they are lacking in quite the degree of evil and determination that FIC 2.1 has.

FIC 2.1, like 1.0 and 1.1 before it, is determined to keep others at bay, to block, mute, ban, eject, push overboard. FIC 2.1 not only actively bans from worlds and blogs and conferences -- it victory-dances. It's about Snowcrash, aiming not only to become superior and elitist, but to block all future dissent and challenges. But...are all these FICy types just "all the talented people"? or "people Prok doesn't like?" or "people who disagreed with Prok?" Of course not. It's merely that I'm a litmus test. Run up against me on a blog -- and you'll rapidly show whether you are 1.0 or 2.0 material, I assure you.

FIC 1.0 (not to despair, wunners, upgrading is still possible when you get a better DSL line with less packet loss), and you can level up and become 2.0 -- watch this for more motivation: http://www.1938media.com/stop-crying/

Philip Linden
Aimee Weber
Siobhan Taylor
Teeny Leviathan
Weedy Herbst
Mother Stuchka
Jeska Linden
Flipper Peregrine
Jennyfur Peregrine
Taco Rubio
Torrid Midnight
Torley Linden

FIC 2.0 -- the more stable version to be using now, more professional, in power, but not always in your face

Hiro Pendragon
Reuben Linden Steiger
Cory Linden
Robin Linden
Satchmo Prototype
SnoopyBROWN Zamboni/Jerry Paffendorf
Johnny Ming
moo Money
Larry Pixel
Shaun Altman
Urizenus Sklar
Walker Spaight
Boliver Oddfellow
Sibley Verbleck
Adam Reuter
GreeterDan Godel/Daniel Terdiman
Adam Zaius
Spin Martin/Eric Rice
Desmond Shang
MarkTwain White
Gwyn Llewelyn
Caliandris Pendragon
Lordfly Digeridoo
otakup0pe Neumann
Tao Takashi

FIC 2.1 -- urge a recall on this version which seeks to keep the platform to itself and throttle its growth

Hamlet Linden Au
Andrew Linden
Forseti Svarog/Giff Constable
Zero Grace/Tony Walsh
Cristiano Midnight
Tateru Nino
Akela Talamasca
Pathfinder Linden
Angel Fluffy
Intlibber Brautigun
Plastic Duck
Daniel Linden
Chadrick Linden
Meta Linden

I know I've got lots more to add -- and of course, I could be wrong on some of my judgement calls here, as FIC taxidermy is tough work! Help me out here!

How does a Linden not get from 1.0 to 2.0? It's the little things, you know? Not twittering, not being at office hours, or simply never showing up after scheduling them -- although that sort of callous indifference can also ratchet you right up to 2.1, too -- it's subtle.

How do you stay at the improved 2.0 and not lurch off to 2.1? Well, not posting nasty personal attacks on blogs is one way, and not, oh, hijacking the voter tools. That will do it!

Notice I now have Lindens in the FIC. That was my grave theological error of my earlier years in undertaking my monumental study of the FIC -- leaving them out! My God, that was short-sighted. Of course they're FIC -- they *invented* FIC, for God's sake! And as they've fanned out now from 1, to 2 to 2.1 -- well, they're everywhere. They R even in yr Twitter with SecondlifeUser (bleh).

What's little understood about the FIC (remember, kids, it's pronounced FIKE like BIKE) is whether I "hate" it. You don't "hate" the weather that controls your life, you just report on it, on the ones. Some of it you "hate" however as it's so unnecessary (like muggyness). I've never been opposed to their being an elite; I just want it to be a *good* elite. An elite that can take us to the next stage of the Metaverse (my God, I am still finding that a totally pussy name for this overarching thingie. I mean, it sounds like we named this thing Frothingbash the Third or Kent or Stanley. It needs a better name. Worldbeam -- I'm kinda liking that but it isn't round and 3-dish. I'm still thinking of it as the Noosphere.)

Crowdsource with me now, people, help make up these lists, so that we can know our elites, hold them to account, and avoid the unstable 2.1 version especially. Those of you with machines that still run only 1.0, know you are still loved.

Dare to dream! FIC 3.0 anyone???

P.S. Everyone always asks me why Anshe isn't on here. Well, she's just not FIC because she's a world-creator in her own right, and has her own world. That means she's big enough not to be dependent on these various iterations of the FIC -- and FIC tend to be content-creators, programmers and such, and not land developers.

P.P.S. Everyone always asks why I'm not FIC, given my influence *cough*. Well, if you have to ask, well...well...you just don't get it.

Comments

[Khamon Fate]

Khamon Grundy want FIC too!

Seriously though, you've elevated Gwyneth prematurely. And don't you think Path will find a real job in the near future?

[Peter Haik/Peter Newell]

Given that definition for FIC 2.0, you better put myself and Adri Saarinen on it too. Not sure where you would place Aaron Delwiche (SL: Carbonel Tigereye)

[Prokofy Neva]

Peter, Peter, Peter. If you have to *ask* to be put on the FIC list, well...I mean...gosh...that's like showing up at a posh club and there's a long line to the bouncer and you march up and say, hey, I'm on the list and this big beefy guy from the Bronx says, tee-up, tee-up, tee-up niggah, and you're like huh? whah? and you sort of slink away...

I do have to give you the walkthrough here though on this: the better sorts just aren't on the FIC lists at all. You know, the platinum cards? The inner circle? Beyond FIC?

[Ace Albion]

Fike or Fick, I don't even have any on my friend list, much less a Linden. :(

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

I certainly agree with Khamon here; I'm just a FIC wannabe, not worthy to be listed among the "shakers and movers" of this virtual world. After all, nobody listens to a loudmouth, much less the Lindens.

That doesn't stop me to *try* to make them listen to me ;) — which is the hallmark of a "FIC wannabe". So perhaps you could add a new section for those — I'm pretty sure it's a much longer one :)

Surprisingly, however, I do agree with your classification — at least of all the others that I happen to know personally :)

[Lewis nerd]

I look forward to my invite to one of these meetings.

[Cocoanut Koala]

I wrote this last night, but couldn't get it to post:

As I've said before, they marginalize themselves into irrelevancy.

Seen it a thousand times before, will see it a thousand times again.

LL as a whole does this, in fact. As I've chronicled since I arrived, they were in the middle of the separation decree from the residents when I meandered in (in February of 2005); celebrated the official divorce with the closing of a large part of the forums; and are now serving the restraining orders with their withdrawal from customer support and customers in general.

The funny thing about it - as I've said before - if you tell people to go away often enough, eventually they do.

And that's how you marginalize yourself into irrelevancy.

Arrogance always reaches this pinnacle of irrelevancy. We see it in practice and literally at the Boston LL "recruitment" party, where they separated the favored from the losers by actually inviting those they liked the looks of to the upper floor, guarded - if firsthand accounts are to be believed - by actual "bouncers."

Not surprisingly, some of the potential talent decided they wouldn't want to work there after all.

Multiply that sort of thing by the incestuous in-groupy and exclusionary patting of one another on the back, and passing out the perks to each other, and you get a group that ever grows in on itself, shutting out other viewpoints, other talent, and the masses they actually NEED to succeed.

You're right about making a mistake by not including Lindens in your lists. I think we would all be amazed how many people we thought were residents turn out to have been secretly promoted to Lindens, and at all the connections and explanations that would immediately become obvious.

(Really, they want the whole pie to themselves and their friends.)

You're wrong about the pronunciation of FIC however - it's clearly "fick."

coco

[Prokofy Neva]

I think originally they wanted to attract geek content developers and programmers like themselves only, figured that was enough to make the world, got surprised and then annoyed that others showed up, saw they needed to throttle it, and began various policies to weed out the hoi polloi again.

They're not irrelevant to high-falutin educators, developers, agencies, whom they wish to retain; they're shaking loose the rest.

And I agree, that countries/companies that follow the Sparta versus the Athens model, and are a closed society with a circuit of feting only their own, and grooming them into a cult, rather than having an open set of opportunities, are doomed to collapse eventually. History always shows this.

Well, since I made up the term, I pronounce it, it's FIKE like BIKE not FIC like BIC pen. It may not conform to the rules of grammar, but there it is.

I'm getting a good horse laugh over the SC posturing now going on about SL Views. Huns Valen is doing a star turn, bragging that he's been invited, but gosh, can he fit it into his busy schedule? Cristiano surfaces to let us know HE has been called, but geez, it's such short notice, it's just not looking good but his girl will call your girl.

And then even Cory Edo is bragging that she's invited, although the last thing the Electric Sheep need is an all-expense paid trip to SF to hob-nob with Lindens, which they can do any time on their own dime.

The beauty part is we have no way of checking whether Cristiano is telling the truth if he never goes, but I imagine he wouldn't lie that baldly as it could get back to the Lindens.

[Cocoanut Koala]

He wouldn't lie about it.

The whole thing has become such a yawn now, though. Over and over and over, the same thing; the same people. Years of it.

I mean, when is the last time you heard of someone going to SL Views, for instance, we couldn't have predicted ourselves as their next choice?

I'm sure there must be someone ever invited to these things that isn't already Fic-y as all hell (- pronounced, "Ficky," by the way -), but we never hear of them.

Or anything. We never hear of anything that isn't the same people. When is the last time you ever scratched anything in SL that LL has something to do with and didn't come up with a Linden or a Linden favorite?

It is so clear by now that SL is about the Lindens, their close friends, their own businesses, their friends' businesses, and keeping the pie to themselves, that protesting unfairness or lack of equal opportunity seems pointless to me these days.

Favoritism is LL's entire philosophy, and permeates every facet of their operation.

They think it is right, and it is their idea of the ideal government.

Every once in a while someone points out that something is unfair on the LL forums - generally someone new - and I find it so touching that someone is puzzled by the lack of any democratic ideals, and questions the medieval set-up of LL and SL.

But soon someone like Cory Edo comes along to say (or should I say "cry"), "Before anyone cries favoritism . . ." and the moment passes.

Because of course, we all know that there is NO FAVORITISM in SL. (And Cory certainly couldn't possibly benefit from it.)

heh

coco

[Cocoanut Koala]

*points out on the LL forums that something is unfair

[Cocoanut Koala]

And while I'm on the topic, let's consider the SL Views.

LL doesn't want to hear what the residents think. They limit blog entries, don't read what's there, limit the forums, cut off voice contact with customers, and so on and so forth, in order to better ignore the average resident.

Instead, they handpick and choose those residents whose ideas and feedback they DO want to hear, and then call that "the community."

Most telling, regarding the corruption of all this, is the fact that we can accurately predict exactly who those are going to be.

Those are the people they listen to; everyone else they consider inferior.

Another observation: One might ask, why is LL and SL set up on a medieval model?

Answer: So they can individually and personally enrich themselves without having to adhere to any conflict of interest nonsense.

Solution: As you have often said - and I've come to agree - the only thing to do is to do an end-run around them. That's basically what Anshe has done.

It's what I do, in fact, because - thankfully - my SL business has nothing to do with them. That's why I can continue happily on in SL. And when they offered me a special perk because of my business, I rejected it.

I won't get rich that way, of course; but at least I can still respect myself in the morning.

I predict that these end-runs will become more numerous and ultimately more important than the little hot-house things LL promotes. Unless, of course, LL gets jealous, and structurally puts an end to them, which of course they can. And they do switch the structure around on occasion to keep various sectors in line, in addition to artificially controlling the value of the Linden.

The very fact that they print and sell Lindens for their own profit is already scandalous. Imagine if the U.S. government didn't just print money, they SOLD it to us, individually, before they put it out, and government officials gave themselves a nice raise with the proceeds!

coco

[Eric RIce]

Remember, when we get to FIC 9.5, the next version is like X or FIC Suite standard edition.

Although I gotta push back on "FIKE" since that doesn't have the marketing potential of -fic suffixes such as TwitteriFIC or HorriFIC or BolsheFIC or whatnot. :P

[Hiro Pendragon]

Okay, my edits, comments: (all in good fun)
1. Gwyn runs Beta Tech, and they do lots of business in Europe. She squarely belongs on the list.
2. I think putting Pathfinder on 2.1 is a bit off. His work history proves his interests are larger than SL alone. I would argue also for Giff to be off your list, but I know you don't like him because of the whole copybot-non-debacle-debacle.
3. FIC 3.0 is already under works. These are people so incredibly powerful that SL is only a subset of what they do. Anshe is already on this list, and many developers may wind up there as they become the sherpas of large companies into virtual worlds, and wind up retardedly rich. I can only aspire to make it there.

[Prokofy Neva]

>TwitteriFIC or HorriFIC or BolsheFIC or whatnot. :P

You are so smart, Eric Rice. And that's why you're Eric Rice, and I'm not! I never thought of FIC becoming like "TerrifFIC and such." Good eye, good eye!

Hiro, but Gwyn *is* on the list, under 2.0. Already. Of course, Gwyn is one of the top FIC taste-makers.

I stand by my call on Pathfinder. It's not merely because he bans me. He's part of making the exclusive Educator Elite with the SLED and all the rest, and he is reaching near-Palinden status now as head of a satellite regional office. If he had not presided over that yucky job fair where they make the plebes stand around with their ice cubes melting in their drinks, and take the newly-identified kewl kids upstairs for more feting, he wouldn't be on 2.1. But he did, so he is.

Giff isn't on there due to copybot only, but because in general, of his attitude of superiority and lack of inclusivity. Of course, that's what's needed to keep 2.0 free of all kinds of riff-raff.

I should have probably included Cory Edo, she's been invited to SL Views and she constantly sounds off on SC plus she was insufferable at the time of Grid Shepherd. Yep, that was perhaps an oversight, she belongs on 2.1 because she's very elitist and exclusive, too, and now certifiable Ochocracy.

Christian Prior wrote in with his tongue hanging out, "Put me in coach, put me in coach, I try so hard!"

Christian, as programmer of the Grid Shepherd and driver of DTV and all the rest of course has macro-metaversal influence power cred, but you know, he's just a little bit too far behind the scenes and just not enough in your face. I would say, drink so more of those protein shakes, get a little bit more meat on the bones, and maybe next season? However, I'm willing to go with the wisdom of the crowd on this one.

As for FIC 3.0 including Anshe...hmmmmmmm -- see FIC is not the metaverse; FIC is Linden Lab's software. So when LL becomes subsubmed by something grander than itself, the FIC will wane. It may evolve to a 3.0 but then that will merely be a superior integrated product that can work with multiple platforms and not be obstructive.

Meanwhile, the Metarati will be beyond the FIC, and some FIC, while able to metastasize to the Metarati, will never be able to shed that FIC stink. To be Metarati, you have to have never, ever cared about being anything in SL.

[Hiro Pendragon]

Prok: Interesting thought process on 3.0. I think the Metaverse is tied too closely to SL community people to label "FIC" as strictly a SL concept. (I mean, for whatever concept it is, given I still think your FIC label is laughable. heh)

Oh, definitely should include someone from IBM and GlobalKids on your list.

Also, there's a 2.0'r on your list who is notoriously in-your-face and power-hungry. I won't say whom specifically, but he/she's there.

[Frankie Antonioni]

Why is Urizenus on the list? I thought he was one of the good guys.

[Eric Rice]

BTW, the Kaneva FIC called and they're pissed.

/smirk

[Prokofy Neva]

IBM doesn't care about Second Life. They care about IBM. They've very big, and they do their own thing, and they're just a big foot in a small pond. They could care less about forums, groups, issues like the events list or land sales -- it's all completely irrelevant to them.

globalkids I find annoying at many levels. And I refuse to give them fake publicity to match the fake publicity they've already ginned up. They're also a RL thing merely using SL as an add-on to up their coolness factor and get grants.

Urizenus is on the list because he's a total sloppy-seconds prostitute these days, what with his Coke sell out, his Anshe-funded trip to NorthByOneifByLand or whatsis, you know, that game contest in Austin, his craven sucking up to "experts", his drooling over the buttery leather shoes of VC types who take him out for $17 arigula salads with raspberry vinagraite, and the fact that he works *very very hard* at having sunglasses *cooler than Philip's*.

[Carl Metropolitan]

There is no FIC. There are FICs.

[Carl Metropolitan]

And no one ever invited me...

[Simone]

Cmere Carl. *pats the space next to her on the bench bearing the label "Chronically Uncool Pplz".

;-D

[Shaun Altman]

Can I just take a moment to say that I am proud, happy and thrilled to have finally made the FIC list? ;-) I feel as though I have really "arrived" in Second Life now. ;-)

-Shaun

[Prokofy Neva]

Yes, Shaun, you have ARRIVED! Truly!

[moo Money]

So does this mean that I'm no longer a FIC hanger-on?

[Prokofy Neva]

No, you're certified FIC now, moo, congratulations!