New Haight Ashbury Non-Commercial District Announced

Good Vibrations, the Groovy Group, is proud to announce the opening of Haight Ashbury, a non-commercial district on Solare Isle. In memory of and testament to the district of the same name, popular in the late 1960s, the ‘Hashbury’ features free clothes, free posters, free altered states, free classes, free tai chai poseballs and free meditation pads.

Full details in EXPLORE

Tales of Samarkand

This Tale is titled The Good Thief read the full story in EXTRA EXTRA

Destiny Island: Your key to a relaxing getaway.

Are you looking for a quiet getaway? A place where you can snuggle up with that special someone in a warm relaxing setting? A place where the sound of the ocean lapping at your feet will put your weary mind at ease and allow you to rest and recharge?



Click EXPLORE to find out more

Irony anyone?

I guess the grid is down even if it says its online?????

Click to see full size

Congratulations to Baron and Mattt

Baron Desantis today married Mattt Guyott in a beautiful ceremony.

Watch it on Utube HERE

Congrats from JamesT and the crew

Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan

Click for full size image

Letter to 'M' Linden

Foreword:
On Tuesday M(ark) Linden posted about his first week in SL and I was tempted to answer it, but reading through the comments, I came across one which so expressed what I felt about it that I contacted the writer and asked him if he would like to put it here. This is his letter unedited:
Dear M,
On May 27, I wrote a response to your "My First Week" piece in the blog. Since then, I've heard about the piece from several residents, but not from any Lindens. I'll take this opportunity to offer you the opportunity to respond directly to the concerns a lot of us seem to share.
As I review what I wrote, it seems dripping with vitriol, which I guess is some measure of both the passion of your core users and the immense frustration we feel at the issues that have plagued Second Life for so long, and what many of us feel is the inattention to what really matters to us.
In the blog you mentioned you've been in-world for a year. Good for you.
What have you built? Ever found yourself hunched over your laptop in an airport trying to finish up that last little piece of whatever your build was only to have the sim crash and eat the whole thing? Your citizens have.
Have you scripted? Ever stared at a screen trying different combinations of commands only to have that contrary witch you call a script editor stare you down with "ERROR : Syntax error"? And how did you learn scripting? Did you join some scripters groups? Find some freebie scripts and tear them apart to try to figure out how they worked? Go to some classes?
Ask yourself this: Why do we need those classes, anyway? Why does the LL documentation and implementation of your own scripting product continue to be so user-hostile that there is a continuing hubbub of events, offline editors (LSLEditor and more) and at least one separate website (lslwiki.net) to teach what should be easily available from the company that put the system together? Despite your best efforts, as the error screen says, the citizens of Second Life continue to create amazing scripted objects and teach other the craft.
Have you ever tried to learn something from that strange combination of Rube Goldberg contraption and Fibber McGee's closet that is the Knowledge Base? The citizens have, and we managed to learn despite it.
Have you ever spent hours learning Photoshop/PaintShopPro just so you could create that one texture that you needed, or learning GoldWave/Audition/ProTools to tweak the bird sounds for your inworld garden? The citizens have.
How's your group life? Have you honestly had the experience of having your group chat requests for (or offers of) help show up 45 minutes after you send them into the dark hole that is group chat lag? This persistent problem rips the spontaneity and creativity out of community after community --- yet, the groups soldier on, mostly good humoredly. Those are the citizens of Second Life.
Have you tried to build something in a public sandbox and experienced this boob Nightmare Dench’s griefing as an average citizen without any hope of getting a timely response from the LL support desk? The citizens have.
Have you ever despaired for your (usually empty) in-world boutique because of the weekly random reminders from your company to stop all transactions while your techs fix some other part of your network and viewer? The citizens have.
Have you sunk some money -- some sum that is significant to you -- into some land and actually paid the tier out of what you make from your business as you watch the land value plummet? What are we up now? 20,000 sims? And about 55,000 concurrency? That's less than three real citizens, camper alts, griefers and bots per sim. Take out the camper alts, the griefers and the bots, because let's face it, they're not the greatest customers, and is it any surprise that land value and retail businesses are depressed? "Robust economy"? Are you kidding? Have you concatenated the SL economy with the LL economy?
The user-friendliness of this infrastructure is not a side issue, not even the most important issue for the future of this world. It is the only issue. I include the following:
- Reliability of the asset servers for all functions 100% of the time.
- Reliability of the viewer.
- Ease of use of each component of the system, including the website, the knowledge base, support, the building editor, etc.
- Ease of moving from "How do I download this Second Life thing?" to being a contributing, participating citizen.
I ask myself, how on earth can it be that I have been here since 2006 and the same issues continue to plague this system, despite endless assurances that it has all been [RESOLVED]. (Want to get a hearty round of LOL's in any group chat? Just answer any complex question with, [RESOLVED].) Clearly there is something astonishingly inept about the Linden Lab system of handling these things. I state this categorically not only because company after company handles far more complex data handling tasks, but because it seems so apparent that LL loses focus more easily than a squirrel with ADD.
I said in my blog entry and I'll say it again here: The best imaginable news for the core residents (the ones who have actually created this world despite your company’s platform) at this point would be if your real job is mergers and acquisitions and your bonus rides on how big a sales price you get. It seems the Linden “management system” is all about vision, not execution. Maybe if the next guys pay enough, they’ll pay attention to what really matters here; and it isn’t Windlight or Dazzle. And it sure as hell isn’t the “feature” of displaying Avatar Rendering Costs, LL’s astonishing, cheap, and blithering ill-timed attempt to blame the most creative residents for the miserable performance of your network.
Make no mistake. I am a huge fan of Second Life, and I have probably spent more time, emotion and money here than I really should have. I’ve spent weeks learning so I could pass along some useful knowledge to new people, and maybe create something of value. Most of all, I’ve met amazing people from all over the world. I think I’m a pretty good citizen, and most people I meet are, too. They persist in their commitment to this world despite LL’s best efforts to discourage them. Those are the citizens of Second Life. While I have my cynical moments, I don't spend hours and hours composing my complaints about things here. Mostly I shrug it off and move on. But the grinding mediocrity of LL's performance, the consistent failure to solve the fundamental issues .... well, it does get frustrating.
Your company has treated the citizens poorly. I think you have treated them like fools, but they are not fools and the evidence is everywhere every time you log on. You would do well to engage in an adult to adult relationship with the citizens, and I've seen little evidence of that.
So here we are. A new moment in Second Life. Your grand entrance. Competition looms on the horizon. It is only a matter of time before we will have the option to port our inventory and skills to some other world. How about some answers? Enough of the "we have a lot to do" -- hell, we knew that long before you did. What are you going to do? What is going to be different? What concrete steps will Linden Labs take to repair this creaking wreck of a platform and by when? Is there a future in Second Life, and if so, why? I know it is none of my damn business, but given what I've invested in this world, I'm impertinent enough to think that it IS my business, and I'd like some answers before I fritter away too much more time or money investing in a virtual future that seems more and more to be the "proof of concept", not the real deal.

And by the way, welcome. :-)
llListen(0, "M", NULL_KEY, "");
Best regards,
Mishka Butuzova

Have your say: Add comments below or click the banner at the top to find out more

Designs of a higher Caliber

How often in SL do you see working furniture beautifully designed and built?

Doors and even drawers that open with a click, soft furnishing with a choice of 12 textures to fit your dining room?

Well I found it and I love it!

Check it out for yourself in the DESIGN section.

Dana

New Trends fashion show June 1st

Full details can be found in the EVENTS section

An Artist Passes from Our Midst - Artistic Fimicoloud

'Seeking solace from the fears that surrounded me, I began to paint - not the fears inside me, but my joy for the landscape I so loved. Flowing from some deep-seated force within me, out it poured - color, light and energy - not mourning what I'd lost, but celebrating the gift I'd been given. '

Continued in the PEOPLE section

Thank you Nazz

Not Possible!!!

Heaven , Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, Chaos..:
They are all there waiting for you in Rezzable Discover Garden of NPIRL delights.....................

Discover and explore with Gemma in the EXPLORE section

Markpa Twang returns to SL to play an hour set for Relay for Life.

As many know, Mark has always been a giver. Wearing a dress to raise money at the Ayeshe's Angel's benefit, and playing for Relay in the past.

Find out more in the RFL section

Don't forget to keep an eye on this section for all RFL related events coming up.

Dana

Tales Of Samarkand

Anoosheh was old and she was ill – again. She had survived a very bad disease many years ago and had tried to help others, who had this disease as well. She had been granted to be an honorary healer, which rarely happened.............

Continue reading in EXTRA EXTRA

Mars Landing Broadcasted in Imzadi Sim

The Mars Phoenix Lander, the latest of NASAs craft to explore the red planet, was confirmed to have made a successful landing on the northern ice cap at 4:54 SL time. Besides at the ISM sim, the landing was also broadcast at the Star Trek themed sim Imzadi.

continue reading HERE

In your bookstore !

Main Description

The wholly virtual world known as Second Life has attracted more than a million active users, millions of dollars, and created its own-very real-economy. The Making of Second Life is the behind-the-scenes story of the Web 2.0 revolution's most improbable enterprise: the creation of a virtual 3-D world with its own industries, culture, and social systems. Now the toast of the Internet economy, and the subject of countless news articles, profiles, and television shows, Second Life is usually known for the wealth of real-world companies (Reuters, Pontiac, IBM) that have created "virtual offices" within it, and the number of users ("avatars") who have become wealthy through their user-created content. What sets Second Life apart from other online worlds, and what has made it such a success (one million-plus monthly users and growing) is its simple user-centered philosophy. Instead of attempting to control the activities of those who enter it, the creators of Second Life turned them loose: users (also known as Residents) own the rights to the intellectual content they create in-world, and the in-world currency of Linden Dollars is freely exchangeable for U.S. currency. Residents have responded by generating millions of dollars of economic activity through their in-world designs and purchases-currently, the Second Life economy averages more than one million U.S. dollars in transactions every day, while dozens of real-world companies and projects have evolved and developed around content originated in Second Life. Wagner James Au explores the long, implausible road behind that success, and looks at the road ahead, where many believe that user-created worlds like Second Life will become the Net's next generation and the fulcrum for a revolution in the way we shop, work, and interact. Au's story is narrated from both within the corporate offices of Linden Lab, Second Life's creator, and from within Second Life itself, revealing all the fascinating, outrageous, brilliant, and aggravating personalities who make Second Life a very real place--and an illuminating mirror on the real (physical) world. Au writes about the wars they fought (sometimes literally), the transformations they underwent, the empires of land and commerce they developed, and above all, the collaborative creativity that makes their society an imperfect utopia, better in some ways than the one beyond their computer screens.

The community in shock at the Death of THE Sojourner

I first met this wonderful lady at the cancer support groups at the Dreams sim after the fair.
What an amazing woman, she will be sorely missed by all who knew her.
The Sojourner was a multiple stroke survivor but yesterday is said to have died of a cardiac arrest. She has been a leader in the volunteer community starting the 'Shockproof' group for supporting stroke survivors and so much more.
Please read Gwyneth Llewelyn's blog for more about The Soj as her friends called her or click the picture below to go to the impromtu memorial that has sprung up on the Dreams sim.

Strength

Oh lord give me the strength i pray.

To watch my friend slip away.

And Stand right there and hold my friends hand.

To let them know i understand.

And wipe the tears from out my eye.

So my friend won't see how sad am I.

Please let me mend my broken heart.

When comes the day we have to part.

To keep the love locked deep away.

So i can feel it every day.

Then our love will ever be.

With me for eternity.

By Dorian Blazer

An Enchanted evening.........

Peaceful, Serene, relaxing, drifting, floating, fading all words to describe how I felt listening to this amazing musical performance last night.

Find out what I am talking about in the EVENTS section

Drama at BNT/ACE and Central Grid

Yesterday this announcement was made on the ACE website:

"There have been several individuals using alts over the past few months to slander and defame ACE and BNT.
We were informed by Barb Carson of Central Grid that she has left that company, as has Marcus Vendetta, out of disgust with the dishonesty, lies, manipulations, and frauds of Jasper Tizzy, aka Frank Corsi. Ms. Carson stated that she lost $10,000 US on Central Grid and it is a failure as a company. She is pursuing fraud charges against Mr. Corsi with the New York Attorney Generals office.
Most recently, Frank Corsi has been using his KingsEstate Short alt to slander and defame ACE and BNT within the BNT sims, and in the greater SL community. Ms. Carson confirmed this and we determined that he infiltrated the VSTARR IPO party last monday to IM attendees with slander about ACE and BNT.
Linden Lab has now banned both Maltos Sosa and KingsEstate Short for alt abuse by Frank Corsi.
Please continue to be on the lookout for other accounts popping up telling the same old lies."


The Today sl-newspaper recieved this email:

"Central Grid will be providing a direct response to Barb Carson's false allegationss towards Central Grid. She never invested money in CG. She purchased regions that she still owns. The reason she left as an owner was that she was greedy. She had 25% ownership. Marcus Vendetta left as an owner on his own terms. His percentage of ownership was to be divided between the remaining owners. Barb was not willing to accept an even 5% raise to each owner. She wanted more. She openly told us all that if she did not get more than that she would walk away as an owner. We allowed her to leave. She porceeded to remove herself from the the CG group in SL. She was an owner of this group. Owners of groups cannot be removed by anyone else. This is one example of how she walked away on her own. All current owners of Central Grid are availble for response. Any copying of these false allegations from the BNT website or from Barb Carson will be exposed as liable. "

We will let you, the public, decide and make no judgements here. We will of course be looking into this more closely in the next few days.

Heaven's Sky Garden Village

We are a community for all whether you be furry, human or whatever , this place is friendly and open to all.

Find out more in the EXPLORE section

Cartoon of the day

Click for full size

By Bixyl Shuftan

Breezes Thoughts; ACS Event

This week Breezes opens her heart and asks for your help

Go to the PEOPLE section to find out more

BNT Receives Four Openspace Sims

Ok we all know void sims are definately the best idea for many but one of the main worries with buying inworld though is the defaulting landlords, I chatted to some of BNTs landowners to see why they came here.

Full story in Finance

Morbid Humour #2

Photo by reporter Dashwood Dayafter
Models Dashwood Dayafter and Bixyl Shuftan

Rasmuson Foundation Gallery of Alaskan Art

This past Monday, May 12th the Rasmuson Foundation Gallery of Alaskan Art, celebrated its grand opening event at a dual second and real life event hosted at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

Continue reading in MACE

By NAZZ LANE

Revolutions - Roleplay in Post-Apoctolyptic Las Vegas

Revolutions is a roleplay sim here in Second Life. Based in Las Vegas after an apoctoliptic disaster in the future, the card given out to newcomers loosely compares it to "Resident Evil Extinction." The RP does emphasis combat fairly often, "People like to combine story with video game combat. Best of both worlds."

Discover more from Bixyl Shuftan HERE

Tube2SL

Smell the popcorn and mingle with the celebrities check our Explore for a briefing.

Happy birthday to FI

Thanks for a fun evening as always

Dana XxX

Cartoon of the day

By Bixyl Shuftan

click for full size

OMG Fire island is 1 year old TODAY!

I can't believe its been a whole year since we covered the re-opening of Fire island.
Carter Giacobini has taken Fire island from one great island to a community of 4 6 great islands with shops and a great party center :)
The following is a listing of all of the events taking place on Thursday, May 22, 2008 to celebrate the first anniversary of Fire Island re-opening!!!!!!
1PM - 1:30PM Opening Ceremonies
1:30PM - 5PM - DJ Aeschylus
5PM - 5:30 - Repeat of Opening Ceremonies for our U.S. Folks
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM: Mr. Fire Island Contest (to be judged by Carter Giacobini; Jewell Munro, CEO of JM Models; Jesseaitui Petion of Aitui)
6:30PM until whenever: DJ Brien Beaumont
I'll be there - will you?

Click image to TP

Introducing................

Today we are honoured to publish the first in a series of stories from the ancient Secondlife roleplaying community of Samarkand.

These stories are written by Anjali Shilova and we hope to show you some of the history of this vibrant community through her stories.

The first is a sad tale of a poor girl and is called The Broken Vase you can find it in the EXTRA EXTRA section. . . .

Nazilla was a quiet and inconspicuous young woman.

She was also very thin and looked like she was ill. One day when she walked through the market, she became faint and lost consciousness. A man, who was just passing by her, reacted and caught her up before she fell on the ground..................

Bay City Revisited

You may recall I wrote about the opening of the Bay City Sim. I went to many sections of the sim to see what was there. I decided yesterday I should go back and look at the areas I had missed and see if there have been some additions. I took off for a flight to see what is new.

Read more with Gemma Cleanslate in the EXPLORE section

RL press V SL reality

OK OK time I spoke out, you know I am so fed up of RL press and their coverage of Secondlife I would love for a real life reporter to actually spend some time discovering SL before they put it down.
Nearly all press about SL is to do with age play, sex, violence etc....

Continued in EXTRA EXTRA

Griefing steps into RL

We have all seen incidents of griefing in SL, and a lot of big events are ruined by them. Important functions are now patrolled by security, increasing the costs to the manager of the event.

Now it seems Secondlife griefing is not enough, a couple of pro-Kremlin Young Russian activists are thought to have copied last years griefing incident at CNETs interview with Anshe Chung which was interrupted by a barrage of flying virtual phalluses.

Former chess supremo and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov must have felt like a pawn in a larger political game after a speech he was giving last weekend was interrupted by a radio-controlled flying penis.

The below-the-belt disruption is thought to be a real world copycat version of a similar, virtual attack perpetrated in December 2006 by cyber vandals in the multiplayer online world ‘game’, Second Life.

Source: Mirror UK

SL birthday celebrations call for diversity

Each year, on the date that Second Life came out of beta (June 23rd 2003), Residents and Lindens have gathered to celebrate the amazing world we’ve been creating. This June 23rd, our community marks its Fifth Birthday, and the volunteer Birthday Team (who has been planning this party since last year) picked a theme that will be hard to resist– “Celebrating the cultural diversity of Second Life”.
Who do you hang around with in Second Life? What are your communities’ traditions and signature characteristics? Are you proud of your sexy blue fur? Your excruciatingly detailed tea ceremony? Your murky environments? Your sculptures? The help you’ve given to others?
Build an exhibit!
Whatever it is you do, flaunt it at this years’ Birthday celebration by entering an exhibit and showing off your unique culture. The team has put together an entry form that will initiate your application process. Fill it in, make your proposals, and wow the team with a description of your vision and skills. The form contains a pull-down list with some obvious “culture” choices already on it, but many of you are not obvious, are you? So, fill in that box marked “other”, as the team will be attempting to put the exhibits of related cultures near each other.
This is a Resident-created, Linden Lab-sponsored event, which means that Linden Lab has donated the land and various basic resources, but the rest comes from you, the community. And there is room for many people to get involved. Even if you don’t want to enter an exhibit, you can volunteer to help the Birthday Team build-out the event infrastructure, help with publicity, translate signs into various languages, give tours of the exhibits, etc. Please send an IM to SignpostMarv Martin or email birthday@signpostmarv.name if you’d like to help with event logistics.
Application Deadline
The team will be accepting exhibit applications until May 25th. You can expect to see the regions open for building on or shortly after June 1. The deadline for completing your builds is June 20. Gates open on June 23 and the event runs until June 30th.
Full details on the blog

Why are you in SL?

I have met up with several friends lately, all who have been in SL for over a year, most seem to be feeling a little jaded with being inworld and I set out to find out why?

Continue reading in PEOPLE

Story reprinted from Bridging the gap with kind permission

Beware the social isolation bug!

I am realizing how getting involved in projects in Second Life can eat away your virtual social life at times.

I remember reading criticism from the Wired magazine about SL and its "empty" grid. Which made me think the writer was just a tourist. In fact, he was. He was exactly like tourists who visit a country and wish they knew the "real" people. This is the way it works: local people have goals, a life and things to do. They don't spend that much time in public places where tourists hang out. And those tourists don't really see the life that goes on.

The same applies to SL when new people visit the grid. They wonder why many places they visit are empty. But many of us started businesses and are working in quiet corners. Or got involved in other kinds of projects such as art galleries. All of this takes most of our in-world time, perhaps at the expense of the the "meet and greet" aspect that made SL at the beginning.

As nice as we want to be, we slowly start to forget about the friends who are online, greeting them only when they take time to IM us. We always say "let's spend more time together soon" or "let's go shopping sometime soon" but never really do it.

As nice as business is, especially if it is successful, it makes us forget things. For instance, we tend to get irritated when a newbie drops in and starts asking questions. "Noobs" are even met with a sigh. Some "tolerate" them only because they help to keep traffic numbers up. Yet that is what we were when we first rezzed, and many of us needed tips and help from veterans to get our second lives going.

Strangely enough, all of the above makes me think that a Second Life is exactly like a first life. We may need to accomplish something, but if we don't take the time to hang out, balance is missing.

So, the next time you want to hit that script, that prim or that other design and "finally" make it available for sale, take a second and look at your friends list. Some of the names there might bring more balance to your virtual existence than the isolation of work!

Beyond Imagination

Are you brave enough to solve the mystery of the Zodiac Killer?
If you think you are then read our Explore section for a clue as to how.

GOOD NEWS For ACE

Data From SLQuotes.com

Go to FINANCE for more information

Cartoon of the Day

Click to see full size

By Bixyl Shuftan

Silverscreen: "Home of the Movies in Second Life"

One of my friends from the Second Life Tour group, Delaynie Barbosa, told me about one interesting sim, Silverscreen.

Discover it with Bixyl in the EXPLORE section.

In-World Games vs. In-World Games

Mirror Image or Wonderland? Bixyl Shuftan tells us a little bit about the divide between the most popular digital worlds in our Explore section.

Fear No Art Fair

Art Fair grand opening click our MACE for details.

Morbid Humour

Photo by reporter Dashwood Dayafter
Model Dashwood Dayafter

Fund Raiser Money Goes Missing

When this story first came to light Graciella Princess editor of the new magazine "Bridging the Gap" came to me and asked for help, I put her in contact with the ACS and RFL in SL and helped try to puzzle all the info out that she got. We have agreed to both break this story but I have not reprinted all the details those you can get by reading the magazine CLICK here to get your copy now:

"Show me the money!" We heard that phrase many times in the 1996 film "Jerry Maguire©." Rod Tidwell's (Cuba Gooding Jr) character required Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) to repeatedly yell this through a telephone, to test his resolve and his eagerness to get Tidwell the best deal possible with his football team.

Now, here in SL™, we have been hearing that phrase a lot from a small group of people. They all have been saying "Show us the money!"

From August 5th 2007 through August 11th 2007, Heartland sponsored a major cancer fund raising drive. What we do know is that over 1.5 million lindens were raised for this fund raiser. What we didn't know was where that money ended up.

The fund raiser itself was called United for a Cure and is reported to have involved more than 150 sims. Relay for Life® was contacted towards the end of July to participate in this event. However, it was communicated that some of the organizers of the event wanted to split the proceeds between Relay for Life, and a friend of theirs that had recently been diagnosed with cancer and required treatment. RFL® at that time declined to participate based on the fact that they do not split donations.

It is at this point that things begin to unravel. On the first day of the event, August 5th 2007, an RFL representative and two of her colleagues showed up at the event and noticed that the collection boxes that were being used appeared to be outdated ACS (American Cancer Society) kiosks, but were not. The RFL representatives first offered to replace the kiosks with real RFL kiosks, but this offer was refused. They then attempted to shut down the event, due to their suspicion of fraudulent activity and were subsequently banned from the location.

The creator of the kiosks, Razor Nordberg, said that they used the ACS initials and a ribbon, taken from a picture found on a ribbon website, on the kiosks. At the time, he didn't see anything wrong with doing this, as the money would in fact be donated to ACS.

The event goes on to reportedly raise over 1.5 million lindens in the name of cancer to be donated to the American Cancer Society, as promised in Raubin Sachertorte's posts to the SL forums. All of the donated funds were transferred to Sachertorte to convert to US dollars and donate to his local ACS office in KS. It was agreed that every shop owner, every sim, every DJ that participated in this event would receive a copy of the receipt from the donation, so that they could proudly display it in memory of their participation.

Seven months pass however, and still there is no receipt. Organizers are getting ready to put together another fund raiser, and questions begin to arise about the whereabouts of the previous donations. These organizers then start putting pressure on Raubin Sachertorte, owner of Heartland and sponsor of the event to show evidence of some sort, that the money ended up at it's intended destination.

At this time, Sachertorte produced a receipt placed upon a prim at his location in Heartland. Upon examination however, the receipt appeared to be false. The date, September 23, 2007 was a Sunday when ACS offices were not open for business. Immediately, organizers contacted the ACS office that this was to be donated to, and sent a copy of the receipt.

An ACS representative stated of the receipt:
This looks like an acknowledgment card that we may have used in the past for memorial donations and we no longer have them available to us. In fact, I cannot remember seeing one in the time I have been with the American Cancer Society. I was told by someone else about the card. Now, any donations that come in are entered into a database and a receipt is sent from there. If a cash donation is made, we must fill out a form for the donation to be credited and a receipt sent.
We don't give receipts from the office anymore. We can give a copy of an "Acceptance of Funds" form, but the actual receipt comes from our business center. 2. I can't tell for sure by looking at it, but it doesn't look like an NCR duplicate. 3. Also, I noticed that our logo is a little off - it looks square in shape, but it should not be. If the logo is 1-inch high, it should be more than 1.75-inches wide.
The number on the "receipt" does not match the formatting for an identification number for a donation. I checked the number in our ordering system to see if it might be an item number for a package of acknowledgment cards, but it didn't match our item numbers either. Also, we have never used "Greater Kansas City" in any of our names. I have been with this office of the American Cancer Society since 1999 and the name of our office has been: "Kansas City Metro Office, Heartland Division, Inc." and now "Kansas City Metro Office, High Plains Division, Inc."

So, what really happened? According to Mr. Sachertorte, on September 2, 2007, he was on his way home from having hernia surgery. On his way, Sachertorte stopped off at the Kansas City Cancer Center. At this time, there was a major Relay For Life event under way, and Sachertorte donated all $4553 to the RFL event. He was given a white gift bag and several candles. At each of their RFL events, this particular facility does give out luminaries to the donators in honor of all that have lost their battle with cancer.
Mr. Sachertorte and his RL wife went home, and placed three of the candles upon their mantle, and put the others away. They took a picture of the receipt, and uploaded it to his wife's computer. Then, they put the gift bag and the receipt away. The circumstances that followed, led to a wild and crazy search for the wayward donations.

According to Sachertorte, when organizers and contributors started asking about the money, he was unable to locate the paper copy of the receipt. To make matters worse, the hard drive the receipt was stored on had been fried in a lightening storm. On top of that, his real life son had taken the camera to school to take pictures and had deleted the copy that was stored there.

In addition to the already questionable situation, Sachertorte was unable to remember the date that he made the donation, nor could he recall the location. Suspicions arose on all fronts.

A friend of Sachertorte, who believed that he had made the donation, offered to help out. The unnamed party made an ACS receipt for him. Sachertorte figured that since he made the donation, it wouldn't hurt to use this receipt. The only problem with this plan, besides the obvious illegality, was that the forgery was poorly done, and he was caught almost immediately.

Of the receipt, Sachertorte said: "The person that made the receipt made it because they felt that I was being done wrong and they wanted to try to help me and the bad part about it was I didn't even think about it when they did it. I didn't think about it. I thought 'that's sweet. I can get this rectified.' They were so adamant to try to help me out. And they were like 'you know what, you've done so much for me I need to do something for you.' I won't divulge this person's name because I know they're dying. I've talked to the person on the phone. I know that they are dying and there is nothing they can do about it."

In a telephone conversation with Sachertorte on May 9th, 2008, he gave the location of where he believed he had made the donation. Calls to this location proved fruitless however, as the contact claimed they didn't accept donations of any kind and had not run any cancer related fund raisers during the time period in question

During a follow up conversation with Sachertorte on May 12th 2008, he again gave the same location. To clarify the facts, a conference call was made to the location with Sachertorte on the line. This time however, the answer was different.

Not only was there an RFL event during the time period that the donation was made, they also gave out candles which Sachertorte described. An email was sent out to the Kansas City Cancer Center (KCCC ) requesting a formal verification of the donation.
Unfortunately, in a follow up telephone conversation with a representative of the KCCC, it was revealed that the donation could not have been made there for several reasons.

As of this time, the money has not been accounted for. Although it is still unclear who has the money, we do know who does not have it. ACS/RFL does not have the money. Kansas City Cancer Center does not have the money. Cancer Action, a cancer awareness group in KS does not have the money. Susan G Komen Foundation does not have the money. The area hospitals do not have the money.

The last person that we do know for a fact had the money was Raubin Sachertorte, who acknowledged receipt of the money in both the May 9th conversations and the May 12th conversations. Further, on May 12th, Sachertorte stated that he split the proceeds between three avatars in order to be able to cash it out. The avatars were himself, his RL wife, and one of her alternate characters.

At this time, all known leads have been checked into. The money has unfortunately, been unable to be located.

The American Cancer Society had this statement:

"The American Cancer Society is conducting an internal investigation into allegations of fraud, relative to Relay For Life in Second Life. As fraud is a matter of great concern in both the virtual and real worlds, the Society takes very seriously any instance in which such an activity might have been externally initiated. If the investigation into this particular fundraising matter determines that fraud may have occurred, the Society will pursue the criminal(s) and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,as our donors would expect us to do as stewards of their resources."

- Jamie Kimbrough, Director, Media Relations Corporate Communications

American Cancer Society, National Home Office

Over 100 pages of text files, 5 hours of voice conversations and several pictures have been accumulated during the investigation for this article. All files have been made available to ACS as well as any law enforcement officials that may be investigating this issue.

By: Graciella Princess