Suzi_Avonside^✦ @Suzi_Avonside

I think to remind ourselves of the nature of what we're all dealing with here we could do far worse than watch the film American History X, or maybe watch it for the first time. It is an excellent film, though hard to watch at times.

Xpletive, is that you?

Says the person who now works for the fascist GlennXpletive at his beach. I don't always agree with Cyber, but in this he is correct to assert his identity, and I will support him and others in this.

Great that there is this focus on Linux. I have Ubuntu MATE on most of my hardware. It's a pity that the more up to date corporate identity for Ubuntu wasn't used on the stand, as the one used went out of use well over a decade ago... https://design.ubuntu.com/

I'm not sure about forgiveness, but I know I never hold grudges as life is simply too short.

This will date me, but in school in the late 60s I was subject to some bullying from one particular person. They just would not leave me alone, and it got to the point where I was at my wits end, so, unfortunately I punched them. They were more emotionally shocked than physically, and I ended up having to answer for my actions to the deputy head teacher, but the one thing positive that came from that incident is that I wasn't bullied ever again at that school.

Bullying always triggers something in me, and I will always take a stand against a bully, wherever they show themselves. I guess that's why in later life I became a labour union representative with a specialism in representing workers who were being bullied by their managers or employers. It's sadly all too common.

Yeah, I did that and got accused of restricting someone's freedom of speech when all I was doing was deleting an irrelevant rant that was about as imaginative as it ever is... No prizes who it was *giggles*. That person was free to go and moan all about it somewhere else, thus no restriction in freedom of speech. We don't have to provide a platform, even if costs us nothing.

I guess my approach is that of an old anti-fascist who has been involved in local campaigns to keep the far right fragmented in terms of their activities in RL. I'd say do whatever it takes to deal with your feelings, just be aware that this many headed hydra will reappear and it will have to be dealt with. The site isn't the issue, it's the lack of moderation, and yes, you have a very real point in that it could be moderated in a way that's favourable to the far right (and that is effectively where it stands anyway). And the 'problem child' is, as you say, only part of the problem, just as Trump isn't the real problem of Trumpism (he's far too stupid for a start) as anyone who has read Miles Taylor's Blowback will be aware.

Getting on with our lives, both in reality and in virtual is vitally important, and whilst I am aware that some see virtual worlds as an escape, ( and nothing wrong in that) I tend to regard them as a microcosm of the real world.

I understand where you're coming from perfectly Jaimie, but for me leaving this site would mean acknowledging that toxic person behind the attacks has won, and I'm not prepared to do that. It's not okay in RL, so why indeed should it be okay online? Indeed, I think the fight to eradicate this kind of hatred is even more crucial online simply because it's so often given the free pass it isn't in RL. One of the biggest problems is that social media won't act to stem the politics of hatred, and that's the main way in which it promotes itself as a result.

I'm not sure that forgiveness is warranted given that the transgressions are very real, and despicable. I noted a conversation where there was mention of the terms and language used, that maybe the use of milder language may have been more appropriate to put across a point. However, that could only be the case were the opinions to be expressed were acceptable, which they were not. That individual is now going around crowing that they are the injured party when that is far from being the case. The viewpoints they were expressing are despicable and definitely cross the line into hate speech. There is no need to forgive, or even to feel that there is any kind of burden to be borne by you, you are not the guilty party. Certainly you should distance yourself from any responsibility in any of this. I certainly do not carry any guilt around with me, or feel that I have to make any atonement for the comments I have made. In comparison any comments we have made, even at their most extreme,, have been completely respectful of the culprit's humanity wheras theirs have besmirched the character and sought to dehumanise in the most disgusting manner. Forgiveness there can only be reasonable when that individual themselves proves themselves worthy of that forgiveness, something I doubt will ever come to pass.

It is sad when posts are deleted, and even sadder when people are driven from this site all down to the actions of one deplorable individual who some, even now, having seen the evidence of their eyes, still try to minimise and be apologists for the most awful behaviour.

We need to stand in solidarity, for I think we all know that we will be faced with a situation once again where the weak man will attack someone for having the audacity to question him, only I suggest that this time, instead of taking him on head on, (difficult when he's blocked people anyway) we offer support to the afflicted and then, make individual reports to the owner of the site, including screen shots of the offending texts.

I'm all for peacefulness here in OSW, but not at any price, and certainly not at the price of tolerating bigots.

Nah, Glenn is a complete prick. His knob might have fallen off, hence the impotent anger, but he's still an utter prick. Get your 'GlennXpletive is a dick' hoodies here!

Not primitive at all, simply stating truths. What does it matter what sex someone is in RL? For all we know you could be a woman, or someone transitioning; it doesn't matter a jot. Glenn deserves all he gets: there is only one bigot here, and that's Glenn, he proves it over and over with his hate speech, which contrary to VickyJoanne's opinion below, is't problematic or difficult to define at all. It's simply any language that seeks to undermine, dehumanise or derogate someone else without sound justification, i.e. is a lie.

There are those, who, from a standpoint of false equivalence who will argue that calling out nazis, fascists, racists etc is unfair, as they have a right to their opinions too. As Thomas Mann said, "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil" I don't know whether Glenn is a fascist, but I do know he is a Trump supporter an MAGA fruitcake. and along with Trump Glenn is the kind of person who enables fascism and the rise of the far right. I wonder what is Glenn's opinion of the Unite the RIght rally in Charlottesville in 2017? Maybe that would be unfair, as wouldn't want to tax the mans clearly confused thinking too much, as I'm pretty sure he'd be somewhat conflicted, especially over the 'Commie libtard nazi fasicst' counter-protestor who was brutally murdered.

Nice one Xenon! Idiots like Xpletive must always be called out. The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them. I'm actually surprised at the amount of hatred he seems to have inside. He's clearly not in possession of a healthy mind.

Nah, Glenn seems to suffer from a very extreme form of Tourette's Syndrome.

A seriously disturbed individual who needs help.

Great to see a detailed discussion of technical issues here, (makes a change from drama!) though I have to say that at present much of what is being discussed is a bit over my head. I want to get into creating in mesh, having been a prim builder for a long time (I still build with prims, but increasingly appreciate where mesh is superior) but most tutorials are really truly bad (boy some people can waffle!) confusing and offer no real support. Inworld classses ar an option, of course, but not always suitable due to timezone differences. At one time Aine Caoimhe's excellent 'Baby Steps' tutorials used to be available, but are now behind a restricted access on her Blogger page. I've not seen any other Opensim/SL specific tutorials anywhere, and what I particularly liked about Aine's tutorials is that they were written in an accessible way and were straightforward to follow, and started with the fundamentals, such as setting up the Blender interface so that it was better suited to Opensim creation. I remember discussing this with Aine, and discovering that we both were a bit 'old school' when it comes to instruction, and much preferred a long-hand written approach to (often very poorly made) video tutorials.

Would there be any chance of there being some basic, introductory tutorials here on OSW so that more of us could get into legitimate content creation, whether that's from scratch or adapting the huge amount of content that is liberally licenced.

There are RP grids, but I suspect that most of them are private affairs that might not even be HG enabled. Second Life is horrendously expensive and there are some RP games that just don't work that well on a sim or two at the extortionate rates that Linden Labs charge. Anything in Second Life pales almost into insignificance when you can have a 2560x2560 var for your pirate or naval warfare RP running for at least full year for the cost of a month's tier for an SL sim if someone home hosts the server. I came across a few such communities when I first arrived in Opensim more than a decade ago, RP communities that had latched on to the fact that with a modicum of technical ability they could have so much more than they had in Second Life for a fraction of the cost.

I think that anything related to the truth on this region is a mere coincidence, as there was certainly no intent to present the truth or even a truth.

Anyone but an idiot would have seem the influence of Qanon all over the place with the ludicrous conspiracy theories being peddled. Engage your brain, do a little reading around on the internet (not the conspiracy sites themselves, unless you're a real masochist). You're of course free to believe what you want, but if you read the actual UN document referred to on the region where they claim that the UN and WHO are promoting paedophillia you'll soon see how it's all lies.

Yeah, anyone believing the crap peddled on this region deserves all they get. I always thought that it was a somewhat tragic, yet poetic justice when I heard reports of so many Covid deniers succumbing, clearly an example of Darwinism in action, or maybe perhaps idiocy would be a little more apt a word.

I was particularly incensed by the claim that the UN and WHO are promoting paedophilia - there is literally no evidence to support this ludicrous and disgusting claim. I know, because I have read all the UN literature, and indeed, the document concerned isn't actually a document published by the UN anyway) and as it happens is only a guideline document anyway. In all cases that I have seen this ludicrous claim has been used to justify opposition to teaching children and young people information that could literally save their lives, or, at the very least, prevent them from becoming pregnant, acquiring STDs or being sexually abused. That any even moderately intelligent person could for a moment believe that whole education systems could teach children that it's okay to be abused is quite simply monstrous. There is a group in Wales where I live called Public Child Protection Wales who are peddling this crap, and they have lost at least one court case when they tried to prevent the compulsory teaching of sex education in schools in Wales. There is no parental opt out option, and all children are to be educated in an age appropriate manner. This education does not include anything that is detrimental in the way that PCPW and other of their ilk, this side, or the other side of the pond.

Perhaps the religous right wack jobs who are promoting this shit are worried that the world's education systems will educate children to recognise when they are being abused, whether that is sexually or psychologically.

And as far as there being some mysterious world order based on he WEF, conspirators should give their heads a wobble and actually look at the state of the world: they'd soon see that the world is nowhere near under the control of one mysterious body, and there are plenty of places where there is a large degree of friction and many, many others where countries live in mutual respect, doing their own thing, nd indeed, many of them broke away from bigger political entities in order to do just that. If anything, the notion of a world order controlled by anyone or any shady group rapidly seems totally bananas.

Paradoxically, it's people such as Trump who are those who would seek to dominate the world order, which given the propensity of these wack jobs who support him to believe in conspiracy theories, is quite ironic.

I think that until proved otherwise, this socialist, agnostic lesbian woman will remain on the side of the sane and treat all those who believe in the crap peddled on this region with the contempt it deserves. I have a brain, and quite simply my intelligence was insulted.

But what an awful choice of beer though. I'm a strict Budweiser drinker, and I mean this stuff https://budweiserbudvar.com/uk/# and not the vastly inferior concoction of a similar name drunk by people not in the know!