Gay Archipelago: Recent Developments

While I have been taking a time-out from blogging for personal reasons, which I am sure will sooner or later spill into a post or maybe 263 of them.., life as we know it has gone on as if nothing had happened. (Now ain't that strange?)

A while back the Gay Archipelago welcomed three new member sims into their fold.

I am assured by several friends in the know at the Gay Archipelago that although the revised membership criteria that have been adopted may be different, they are by no means lower than previously.

About a week ago I received notification of a notice that reads:

GA SAYS NO TO NEGATIVITY AND LACK OF PARTICIPATION

The GA represents solidarity in the LGBT community, existing to promote and support member sims. A positive outlook and a desire to participate in GA events and cooperation with other members and the group as a whole are basic requirements. Regretfully, not all have such a positive outlook or wish to be a part of this. We are asking that Pine Valley Resort and Pandore leave the GA of their own accord or be ejected as of tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Weylin
Dextrum
Chade
Nikolai
Hiro

Whether or not the above mentioned sims had actually themselves decided to leave the Gay Archipelago before they were asked to leave or be ejected is a matter of contention.

As far as I am aware both Pine Valley Resort and Pandore left the Gay Archipelago within the designated timeframe. It is of particular interest to note that Pandore was one of the founding sims of the Gay Archipelago.

A couple of days ago I was also informed that Ohiomike Lockjaw had decided to withdraw his Lockjaw Isles from the Gay Archipelago. Ohiomike's decision interestingly enough has some repercussions on one of the members in the lead team, who will now have to find a new roll on another member sim to continue being a member of the lead team.

So, summing up the Gay Archipelago has won some new member sims and lost the same number. However I am told, by usually well informed sources, that the Gay Archipelago has av many as fifteen or more applicants who are awaiting approval on their membership applications.

Nikolai Warden: Upset But Staying

Nikolai Warden, another of my many friends in the Gay Archipelago - on both sides of the current conflict - has left a comment with his point of view on my friend Hiroku Kamachi's blog post The Mind of Hiro: "Pearls From Swine". The comment was made on July 17 and was published today.

"Hiro, you and I have known one another a long time. I think you know that I am a fairly reasonable fellow. Though the estate I help manage chose to leave the GA, I and one of the other managers there chose to remain on the GA admissions committee as you know. I will tell you though, as I told Weylin and Chade, that the way the appointments were made was a shock to any who have been in the GA for more than a couple of years.

For a festival team to be put together is different from a board of directors, and different from appointing a PR Lead and Vice Lead … to those of us who have seen quite a few administrations in terms of GA Lead, all of that was a shock. The way it has always been done is that any major decisions have gone through the owners group. Forming an advisory board is a major change in the way things are done, and to us old timers, that decision itself should have gone through the owners group for approval. The decision to write rules and bylaws also is something that the owners group should have voted on, in my opinion.

GA Lead, (and by extension, the relatively new role of Vice Lead), and PR Lead have traditionally been done by candidates putting their names to the owners group and a search committee conducting interviews and the search committee making a decision. Now I realize that the duties of the lead, as outlined by the previous search committee, are a bit vague in “putting together teams” or such, I haven’t the exact wording in front of me. I also realize there are very general guidelines and no rules or bylaws, which has always been intentional. The owners have always been in charge, whether they are active or apathetic really, with the Lead as a spokesperson and detail person to carry out the wishes of the owners group. If the owners group does not give feedback, the Lead takes the lead.

Weylin is the seventh GA Lead with whom I have had dealings. When Myles Capalini, one of the owners who chose to withdraw from the GA, took over as Lead a number of years back, he was told by the outgoing Lead to let the owners THINK they have a say and that it is a democracy, but run the GA as a dictatorship, which is just how that person HAD run it. He and Myles butted heads over this issue to the extent that Cabria left the GA and only returned due to Garth Raleigh’s leadership. Garth stepped down as Lead quite some time ago. Since his departure, owners meetings have been sporadic and the GA has changed. Weylin making decisions that have ALWAYS gone through the owners group came across, to those of use who have seen more than a few GA Leads come and go, as the worst of the old dictatorial sort of dismissal of the owners group by the Lead, going back 4 or 5 years when there was such contention regarding how the GA was being managed.

I cannot speak for others who were upset by how the appointments were handled, and I do understand Weylin’s rationale for doing so. To dismiss the uproar with the notion that it is people who do not like Dextrum and were upset because he was appointed Vice Lead is grossly inaccurate. I was upset, others were upset, and I for one did not know Dextrum at all before he applied for GA membership. I heard the objections against him, I interviewed him at length, and found no reason to vote against his admission into the GA. I have no real issue with him being Vice Lead. It would have been better if all this had been put to the owner’s group and any interested in the Vice Lead and PR Lead positions had a chance to express such interest, and the owners had had some say, as it has always been done. It is not OMG DEXTRUM IS VICE LEAD???? NO WAAAAY YOU CANNOT DO THAT! It is more a matter of err … that is not how things are traditionally done, and really, the formation of a board of directors should have been presented to the owners group and voted on."

Shooting the Messenger (Edit 2015-07-19)

Wikipedia has an article on "Shooting the messenger" that starts like this:

"Shooting the messenger" or "killing the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news.  

Until the advent of modern telecommunications, messages were usually delivered by a human envoy. For example, in a war, the messenger was sent from the enemy camp. An easily provoked combatant receiving such an overture could more easily vent anger (or otherwise retaliate) on the deliverer of the unpopular message than on its author.

"Attacking the messenger" is a subdivision of the ad hominem logical fallacy.

(...)

"A modern version of attacking the messenger can be perceived when someone blames the media for presenting bad news about a favored cause, person, organization, etc. The fact remains that "shooting the messenger may be a time-honored emotional response to unwelcome news, but it is not a very effective method of remaining well-informed."

Getting rid of the messenger may be a tactical move, but danger found in nondisclosure may result in either hostile responses or negative feedback from others. "People learn very quickly where this is the case, and will studiously avoid giving any negative feedback; thus the 'Emperor" continues with the self-delusion....Obviously this is not a recipe for success." 

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My - former? (Edit 2015-07-19: Hiro and I have chatted and come to the conclusion that we are still friends even if we have differing positions in this case. I was extremely gladdened.) - friend Hiroku Kamachi, the recently appointed new IT-Director of Gay Archipelago, shows an interesting aspect of the phrase in a post on his blog today entitled "The Mind of Hiro: Pearls From Swine".

For easier reading, click the snips to enlarge.

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You should know Hiroku, that whatever may happen now or in the future, I will always be grateful to you for the empathy and support you have shown me in the past. 

Although everything seems so self evident and natural to you, you could at least try to accept or admit that it wasn't so for everyone concerned. The fact that they - and I - perceive a problem where you don't see one, doesn't make us inherently bad, malicious, foolish or even - to use your word - "swine". Name calling and other verbal abuse ("Bitchy Old Queen", "The Old Boy's Club" and "The Old Guard") is usually quite counterproductive for a successful dialog - if that is what one wants. 

Has There Been A Coup In the Gay Archipelago? (Corrected 2015-07-15) (Updated 2015-07-16)

The Gay Archipelago (GA) is an association of landowners of multiple diverse LGBT/LGBT-friendly sims in SecondLife. They conduct Archipelago-wide events, and welcome LGBT newcomers into SecondLife.

"G Dragon Coup d'etat" by Sui-Kunoichi

The GA is governed by The Owners Group, which consists of the sim owners themselves or their appointed representatives.

Hitherto - i.e. until yesterday - the leaders of the governing body (the GA Lead, the Vice Lead and the PR Lead) have historically always been vetted by and voted upon by the The Owners Group.

According to information from several well informed sources Weylin Vale, the current Lead of GA, announced a meeting on Saturday at 11 PM SLT set to take place only eight hours later on Sunday at 7 AM SLT. (Correction 2015-07-15: This information was incorrect, please see the my later post  Bock in SecondLife; Re:Coup Or Not In the GA?. My sincere apologies to all involved and to my readers.) Update 2015-07-16: Myles Capalini On "Suddenness" & More, where you will find that the date of the meeting was announced early, but not the time.

The purpose of the meeting was purportedly about the upcoming GA SummerFest 2015.

At the meeting yesterday Weylin Vale unexpectedly announced to the owners group that he had appointed the following positions
Vice Lead - Dextrum Boucher

PR Lead - Rico Bluestar,

Treasurer - Chade Dagger,

IT Director - Hiro Dagger-Clemenceau,

Membership Director - To Be Announced and

2015 Festival Director - Caeru Dubrovna.

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As I understand it, this sudden and unexpected deviation from previous procedure by the GA Lead has raised concerns among many sim owners in the GA on the future direction of the organization and whether or not they wish to remain a part of it. 

I will try to keep you updated on further developments as they unfold.

Sunday Brunch at Hinterland

Hiroku, Mitch and Chade

Today I visited Hinterland for Sunday brunch. Well to be quite honest. I went there to catch a set at The Den but as it turned out I was 24 hours too late.

Still, when I got there I was welcomed to join Chade Dagger. his partner Ronan Juran and Hiroku Kamachi and Mitch for a good chat and some strong coffee around the fire,

Hiroku, Mitch, Chade, Ronan and I

I hadn't seen the guys in a while so it was good to catch up. The men of Hinterland have always been good to me and to Ars too. Ars used to have a regular set at The Den on Saturday mornings (somehow I confused it with Sundays), so I was a  very regular patron. The first memorial for Ars was held at Saint Magnus Kirk, the church that is seen in the background on the top picture.

Next Saturday, 1-3 AM SLT, there will be a Scottish event at The Den, I will be there for sure (if I can only schlepp my tired ass out of bed) wearing one of my leather kilts.

Nobel Prize for Philip Rosedale?!!

Philip in a tuxedo - like I want to see him soon again

So I was dreaming a bit during the night and now I am going to share parts of my dreams with you, dear readers. The dreams were totally wild and crazy but happy ones.

I had a short one about kissing my Ars, it was so real that I even dreamed of feeling his breath on my face. The only thing was my mind could not decide which Ars I was kissing, his SecondLife avatar or his first life person Doug, so it kind of shifted from one to the other all the time.

In my dreams I also remembered the amazing memorial services that were held in Ars honor, first the one at St. Magnus Kirk in Hinterland (arranged by Chade, Hiroku and the other wonderful men at Hinterland) and then the one at the Calas Galadhon Garden sims (arranged by two of Ars´s brothers, Dejerrity and Jeb, and the two owners of Calas Galadhon, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, and finally wonderful builder Bora Rossini).

Come to think of it I really wish I had pictures from those two services, but I was too preoccupied with other things to take any myself.

At both places we had many avatars coming in from all corners of the world to be together and support each other at this point in time and in their busy first life´s. All because we shared a love and admiration for the avatar Ars Northmead and Doug, the man behind the avatar.

The memorial at Mirromere with me, our boys and Millimina
(Photo courtesy of Millimina Salamander)

Did you know that we were more  than 70 avatars at Calas Galadhon for the whole ceremony? And one of the avatars actually had parts of Doug´s first life family sitting there watching the computer screen, his father, his sisters and brothers and some cousin and nephews.

We were all there, from all over the world sharing these moments of remembrance together, being with each other, supporting each other.

The first thing I thought when I woke up was "Philip Rosedale - and possibly Linden Lab also - should be awarded the Nobel Prize!"

The Nobel Prize comes in the following categories Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and finally Economic Sciences. The last prize is awarded by Sweden's National bank in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

I can imagine Philip Rosedale receiving the prize in possibly three of the six categories, Physics, Physiology or Medicine and Peace, but maybe also Economic Sciences.

What do you people think? Could he receive the prize? If so, in which category/categories and why? Talk amongst yourselves then tell me. I have a few ideas myself that I may possibly leak.