Your2ndPlace

Shortly after writing my last article, virtual exchange habitue Arnaud Villota called me on a statement I had made regarding patterns of behavior amongst those utilizing virtual exchanges. The comment itself opined little effort and a predelection towards rants with little follow-through. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

Vitolla directed me to an SLCAPEX thread that announced the creation of a WSE Watch Group complete with a website. While I have my concerns, I have to admit existing information pertaining to the WSE is spread far and wide. Lots of oddly-titled forum threads laced with off-topic rants often overshadow critical information. It's not a remedy, but it has potential. Done right, it may send a very powerful message. And there's no denying this kind of community response is to be applauded.

To further that pursuit, I'd like to request that anyone who has had their WSE account locked come forward and make it known either as a comment here or at the SLCAPEX thread dedicated to discussing the WSE.

This request is inspired by a message WSE CEO LukeConnell Vandeverre sent to an unknown number of individuals:

(Posted with Vittola's permission):

"[16:07] LukeConnell Vandeverre: (Saved Mon Aug 11 00:07:24 2008) Hello. WSE has over 27000 accounts of which less than 10 are locked due to breaches of the WSE Terms of Service by those users. I've noticed that you have been making it your business to you spread false allegations about the WSE and I'd like to know why you are doing this? what do you stand to gain? Your account isn't even locked. Regards, Luke.

Readers likely remember that Delicious Demar Enterprises (DDE) was one company entangled in a mass delisting after WSE CEO Lukeconnell Vandeverre (RL: Luke Connell) froze and liquidated ("delisted") several companies due to their congregating en masse without his approval to discuss key issues pertaining to their future on the WSE. DDE itself was not delisted, but the company's namesake and CEO, Delicious Demar, felt compelled to voluntarily delist.

Last week, Delicious Demar announced that Vandeverre had locked her account at some point just before the WSE's "reopening." Decrying the act as a theft of her shareholder's rightful assets(reportedly 234,000L$ PLUS share holdings), Demar summarized Vandeverre's decision as being due to her having

...an opinion that isn't popular with the owner of the WSE - i.e. that it is a highly risky endeavour, and the owner has shown himself to be without honour. In his megalomaniacal mind, that justifies the theft of OUR assets.

Since my own account was locked due to what Vandeverre has phrased "fostering a negative opinion of the WSE," I've no doubt that Demar is correct. In the months between the WSE's abrupt trading halt and reopening, we've seen more than a few instances of frozen accounts, delisted companies, and disappearing announcements.

Appearing at the end of that blog was a comment left by Ivan Halfpint, former advisor to WSE-listed Fund Second Life(FSL)-rebranded "Fund Virtual Shares(FSV)" due to copyright issues- who left due to conflicts with FSL's management in their decision to remain listed at the WSE. Halfpint provided a log of an encounter with Vandeverre, which, while excerpted, would appear to be nothing new, save for the clarification of Vandeverre's position:

(Posted with Ivan Halfpint's permission)

You=Ivan Halfpint

If you've spoken casually with Sarah Nerd for more than two minutes, you're probably well aware that she's a devout (read: obsessed) fan of Nine Inch Nails(NIN) and the band's frontman, Trent Reznor. Sarah recently became a finalist in a local contest to meet NIN and Reznor. From a glimpse at the MySpace page Sarah has created for the contest, it's clear she's pulling out all the stops.

Recently, Sarah requested that SL users take inworld and/or RL photographs of themselves holding a sign promoting the contest.

Sarah's contributed a great deal to the SL Community. She's also become a dear friend. So I'd consider it nothing short of a personal favor if people would take a few minutes of their day to help make Sarah's dream a reality. That may sound melodramatic, but if you know Sarah, then you know I'm speaking in earnest.

The sign is available at SL Exchange and onrez . The contents of the photo beyond the sign are limited only to the user's imagination.

Users of The Sims Online(TSO) will be enjoying their last day today. The servers are set to go down tomorrow (August 1st). Though my knowledge of software technology is so basic that I should have a bumper sticker reading "Enduser 4 Life," I can't help but think The Sims was a stylistic influence of Second Life. As a viable online platform, I have no doubt that TSO was itself influential. In fact, several users of Second Life have told me that they were formerly TSO users.

I was among the first. I signed up for the beta test in November 2002 - one month before the game went live. Though I bought the released game and became a 'charter member,' within two weeks of sporadic use, I was gone again. TSO simply did not hold my attention. The single-player counterpart had that problem for me as well. To this day, I pull out my original "The Sims" game once every 2 years for 2-3 days and then return it to my collection. The user behind Konner McDonnell is very much the introvert. He likes his games single-player and his interaction with others to be constructive in a specifically 'real world' sense. I've always considered myself as being somewhat 'unusual' so I suspect my reasons for abandoning TSO are lost in the numbers of people who were simply "too bored, too fast." But that certainly can't be the extent of it.

While I'm sure people that use Second Life have a diverse history in the MMOG world -and many have no such history- the similarities beg the question of whether SL somehow took ideas like TSO and expanded beyond the limitations of that platform to create something with more realistic implications. In effect, 'sealing TSO's fate.'

A quick glance to the WSE website has yielded a relaunch date of August 3rd, 2008. Somehow, I was never notified of this. And while I'm curious if the WSE bothered to make any formal announcement (afterall, I seem to be doing the job for them quite well), I urge WSE-users not to take a collective breath of relief just yet.

I've made it quite clear where I stand. While I'm not sure whether Nobody Fugazi or Ciaran Laval will care to keep tabs on the WSE in the days following its return - I certainly will not.

I hope that current investors will remember everything they've endured in the last six months and help inform any potential investors as best they can. Between Nobody Fugazi and me, there exists a veritable tome of arguments against further investment.

In the end, of course, it is up to the individual user to make their respective decisions. Whatever that decision may be, I hope it is well-informed.

Earlier this morning, Virtual Stock Exchange (VSTEX) Public Relations Officer Samantha Goldflake announced that VSTEX had halted all companies on their exchange and asked users not to withdraw funds via their ATMs. Goldflake informed me that while she could not provide specifics, the situation was severe enough to warrant an open discussion with the CEOs of all SL exchanges.

Cocky Dagger of the International Stock Exchange (ISE) posted a similar announcement which he would later follow up with a quick summary of events that serves to explain both exchange's halts:

Here is a quick status update. Someone has figured out a very serious security exploit in SL and based on talks with Linden Labs it won't be acknowledged or fixed any time soon. We are not the only ones that have been affected and unfortunately others will be to. I'll write up the security exploit and supporting information later.

What this means for you is ATM's will have to stay down. I need to set up an alt, put money into it, and conduct manual transactions through the alt. It will take me several days to figure this out and I will publish procedures on in-world L$ transactions. I apologize for this inconvenience but exchanging Lindens through scripts is not safe in SL at this time.

At roughly 11:15AM SLT, The Ancapistan Stock Exchange (ACE) notified its users that ATMs would be disabled as a precaution, but trading would be allowed to continue.

As of 1:45PM SLT, SLCAPEX has removed its ATMS until further notice as a precaution. Trading will go on as normal with obvious limitations imposed by the absence of a mechanism to deposit/withdraw funds.

My previous coverage of the proposed CSLL/CSVC merger ended with a fairly mellow update. Given that Oceanlane was taking his company private, it seemed harsh to criticize him further. Even if the terms of the buyback were, as one Y2P reader put it, “a slap in the face,” it seemed only a matter of time before Oceanlane’s volatile disposition led to the downfall of CSLL, so personally, I was glad to see a positive outcome for all parties.

In all honesty, I thought the matter was done with. That is, until this morning, when I came across Skip Oceanlane’s response to Scott Nestler. The accusations within Oceanlane's hateful message reminded me that there was a story left untold. I'll remedy that error now.

What to say about Skip Oceanlane? He claims to be a safety inspector with a GS rating in real life. And I'm inclined to believe that. His management style utilized the sort of “do it my way or I'll close you down forever" state of mind I’d expect from someone wrapped up in their own position of authority, marginal though it may be. But he's not Gordon Ramsay. This isn't Kitchen Nightmares. And beneath his veneer of oozing self-confidence is the ever-present threat of mindless tantrum, vindictiveness, and baseless accusation.

So when Scott Nestler and others asked why they hadn't been compensated for their shares yet, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see this included in Oceanlane's response:

You robbed former Sky Hedge Fund investors on SLCapex, and you are working with known scammers, and yet you still deny you have done anything wrong. I don't trust you at all, and it's because of people like you that very few invest in the stock markets anymore. I'm not the reason things have gone downhill. It's because of people like you and your friends on stock exchanges like SLCapex.