Enlightenment?

Maggie Mahoney sent me this link http://www.runwaysl.com/blog/?p=1150 after I posted about the Runway mess and accusations that had been thrown around.
In that post I did not give opinions merely stated the public view and 'press releases' that had been sent out.
After reading Maggies lengthy post about time lines and such I still find it amazing, even given Maggie's personal circumstances and her and Oceans wish to leave SL and Runway - perfectly understandable - the fact that they would announce it to the world without talking it over with their staff and not even informing their staff until over 3 hours later is much harder to understand.
If you are done with a thing then you are done with it right?
Leaving the staff in the dark almost completely and then getting upset because said staff turned to someone with experience and then accusing Frolic of doing so for his own gain is ludicrous! From all that has been said and written I can see no fault with Frolic he was ASKED to step in and did so in a speedy manner since there was much already in the preparatory stages that needed dealing with quickly, as with all publications it takes a lot more than people realise to get a magazine out on time and deadlines, models, photography all has to be organised, with the staff completely in the dark and seeing a lot of unfulfilled obligations, both Frolic and the staff at the time did their best.
I along with many others wish Maggie and Ocean all the best in their first life.
As for Frolic he tried to help in a confused situation and stepped back, as any gentleman would, when asked to do so - your reputation is untainted as far as I am concerned.

Dana Vanmoer

moreless

Runway CEOs retire leading to accusations

Ok so first I got a press release stating that Maggie Mahoney and Ocean Bates were retiring to first life:

Maggie Mahoney and Ocean Bates have left Second Life for personal reasons and we wish them the best of luck. She has left the magazine in the capable hands of their staff.

I read with interest as I had recently been asked to do an interview for Runway so I opened the online magazine and read the full post with interest - You can read it here.

In the press release (but not in the blog post) it also said:
It is the wish of RUNWAY staff members to incorporate ouselves with the BOSL & CO group and continue to offer the very best of the modeling and fashion industry.
"I have always supported Runway Magazine and I will continue to support it for as long as I stay in SL" said Frolic Mills, new Publisher of Runway Magazine.
Expect the same concept but exiting new improvements as we quickly reorganize the quarters of Runway Magazine!
RUNWAY WILL CONTINUE ITS PUBLICATION AS ALWAYS !

Well to be honest this kind of made sense so I shrugged and thought no more of it until today when I recieved another press release this time sent by Frolic Mills:
Maggie Mahoney just made a press release accusing BOSL to have taken advatage of the RUNWAY Staff by quickly 'moving' to get the magazine.

So I went back to Runway to see exactly what Maggie had said:

RUNWAY will not merge with BOSL&CO.The Magazine will close.Originally the magazine had been left to the staff; however, after learning that Mr. Mills coerced the RUNWAY staff into believing that RUNWAY was indebted to him, that he had been given full control of the RUNWAY server network, RUNWAY Subscribers kiosk, etc., immediately brought them in under the BOSL corporate umbrella, had them to form new groups under his control, etc., I have decided to retain the branding rights and trademark and let the magazine officially close.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to the staff who did step up to the plate to try to continue on and my apologies that you were taken advantage of.

Any action of BOSL&CO acting on behalf of RUNWAY should be considered fraudulent and without the express consent of myself, Ocean Bates, RUNWAY, RUNWAY SL, RUNWAY Magazine or RUNWAY Productions.

Full post HERE

When asked Frolic said:
"I find this quite interesting since it was the staff who invited me to their meeting and it was their decission to let BOSL run it. I offered to help out specially because of all the outstading contracts she left unfulfilled and for which she gave no refunds at all.
RUNWAY MAGAZINE is in financial liability and will no longer have any working servers inworld. My only intention with acquiring this magazine was to rescue the good name and reputation of the publishing world, and to help the RUNWAY staff keep their jobs. There is no other advantage.
But, since she has made it clear that she does not want BOSL to be involved with RUNWAY MAGAZINE, I will now gladly return it to all the staff members.
Maggie Mahoney resigned from RUNWAY and left it to her staff with full permissions to do as they pleased. Therefore, Maggie Mahoney has no longer any rights to RUNWAY MAGAZINE nor logos and should not be heard in any future decission making.
I wish all the Runway staff the best of luck."

So yet another drama unfolds in SL.
Dana Vanmoer

moreless

Burning life 2008 - The story unfolds

Hidden away on 22 sims out in the SL ocean is the desert playa for Burning Life 2008.... remember the the drama from last year. Well this year will be different... it's a Zero Drama Tolerance Event (no Shakespeare allowed either). Watch the wiki at this link for new details...
http://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Burning_life
Burning Life was first held in 2003 when the grid was still in it's infancy, and this is it's 6th year running.
Because Burning Life is a mirror in spirit of a real life event, albeit with the unique and creative twists only Second Life can offer, we follow suit. Together, we will build a city, and we voluntarily accept many of the same restrictions that Nature imposes on the real thing. We do this to see how creative we can be with the same palette of materials and to revel in the beauty of simplicity. We use the same blank, desert landscape, and many of the things we build are naked or primitive in structure, easily revealing to the casual viewer how they were constructed. Just pretend that you're bringing everything you need with you in your car or truck and you're going camping. Extreme Camping. Really Extreme Camping.

The other thing you need to know up front is this: Both Burning Life and Burning Man are completely non-commercial. There is no buying or selling in this city...no sponsorships, no logos, no advertising, but acts of unconditional gift-giving that play a large part in Burning culture. It's all about about the radical inclusion of participants, it means welcome and respect — with no prerequisites for participation. It's all about us and what we have made for each other to enjoy.

Zero Drama Tolerance

If you are thinking of volunteering to work on the pre-event set-up, read this: The Burning Life Production Team will be a no-drama zone. It's goal-oriented, get-'er-done work, all accomplished behind the scenes. While it's very fun and satisfying, it is no place for a big ego or someone who needs to be the center of attention or in control. It's collaborative. "Team" is a big word around here; be prepared to work with others and be good at reaching a goal, even if the road to it is not the one you might have chosen if working alone! We're all about "get 'er done, lighten up, and have fun".
Source:http://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Burning_life

moreless

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.

moreless

Drama at JCNY contest: we tell both sides

On Tuesday I received a strange story, now this does happen but we don't always print them. This however was well written and expressed one side of a story, so I did what any reporter would do I contacted the other side to get the full picture. One thing I do wish emphasized is that none of this is written by me, I will not print the whole story but will try to show both sides, even after being accused of writing it, I still wish to be fair:

Full story in DESIGN

moreless