[sldev] Re: SLDev Digest, Vol 21, Issue 29

Random Unsung ravenglassrentals at yahoo.com
Wed Sep 10 14:32:22 PDT 2008


Edward, I don't suffer from "fears" and I am not riddled with "FUD" or a "Luddite". These are all absurd labels technologists put on people who question their activities in order to avoid real democratic participation -- which they claim to be offering. I raise objections simply to expose that these supposedly "open sourced" and "community" viewers and other features (like SLIM) aren't anything of the kind -- that in this case, Jacek has made a highly troubling and defiant "manifesto" in which he explicitly demands that "usable" viewers be created by deliberately going around the public's wishes. I don't think the Lindens should be endorsing such radicalism.

Here you are illustrating again, Edward, that "thecommunity" isn't really the same thing as the genuine public interest; it's just a small technocratic lobbying group. When anyone from outside the "magic circle" tries to protest at the high-handedness, they are accused of "fears". My point isn't just that there isn't a transparent roadmap; it's that any group can come along and either buy its way into the viewer (Electric Sheep), with the Lindens copying some of the same features (the search all box) or lobbying through office hours for abstract visions not actually produced yet (Jacek) with a track record of removing "search" and L$ completely.  It doesn't matter if *those specific contest winners* are in fact put up again; the willingness to shed "search" and "$" vital to the economy and put in even more tangential or special-interest features -- under an agenda specifically to defy the average user -- are all developments of great concern.




      
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