Month: December 2018

My Final Days on Facebook: A Rant

quit_facebook.png

Facebook is really, really pissing me off today.

First, after sending many of my Facebook Messenger contacts a cut-and-paste message outlining all the ways to get ahold of me after I leave Facebook (see below), the service abruptly logged me out due to “suspicious activities”, and forced me to create a new password and review various account settings before it would allow me back in.

Then, one of the cross-posted items from my blog was flagged for “going against our Community Standards”, and not posted to several of the many Second Life groups I belong to on Facebook:

Facebook Community Standards 22 Dec 2018.png

What. The Actual. F*CK?!?? There’s absolutely nothing even remotely offensive about this. The only possible difference between this post and countless posts that I have made without incident over the past year is that I talk about “leaving Facebook at the end of this year”.

All of this is only hardening my resolve to delete my account and all my data, and get off this social network as soon as possible. As a recent news article from The Guardian newspaper says, why not make it a New Year’s resolution to quit Facebook yourself?

A New York Times investigation has found that Facebook gave Netflix, Spotify and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) the ability to read, write and delete users’ private messages. The Times investigation, based on hundreds of pages of internal Facebook documents, also found that Facebook gave 150 partners more access to user data than previously disclosed. Microsoft, Sony and Amazon, for example, could obtain the contact information of their users’ friends.

…

The Times’ new report caps off a very bad year for Facebook when it comes to public trust. Let’s just recap a few of the bigger stories, shall we?

  • March: The Observer reveals that Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent for political purposes. It is also revealed that Facebook had been keeping records of Android users’ phone calls and texts.
  • April: It was revealed that Facebook was in secret talks with hospitals to get them to share patients’ private medical data.
  • September: Hackers gained access to around 30m Facebook accounts.
  • November: Facebook acknowledges it didn’t do enough to stop its platform being as a tool to incite genocidal violence in Myanmar. A New York Times report reveals the company hired a PR firm to try and discredit critics by claiming they were agents of George Soros.
  • December: Facebook admitted it exposed private photos from 68 million users to apps that weren’t authorized to view your photos. (You can check if you were affected via this Facebook link.)

If you’re still on Facebook after everything has happened this year, you need to ask yourself why. Is the value you get from the platform really worth giving up all your data for? More broadly, are you comfortable being part of the reason that Facebook is becoming so dangerously powerful? Are you comfortable being on a platform that has, among other things, helped incite genocide in Myanmar?

(Below is the message I am sending out to all my Facebook Messenger contacts. This also applies to all of you who are reading this blogpost.)

After I quit Facebook, here are all the ways you can still get ahold of me:

  • Email: ryanschultz [at] gmail [dot] com (or just use the Contact link on my blog)
  • Blog: https://ryanschultz.com (you can always post a comment and I’ll see it)
  • Cellphone/text: Available upon request, only to those people whom I know.

I am also inviting you to join the RyanSchultz.com Discord discussion group! There’s no cost, it’s free! I’ve got a channel set up just for my Facebook friends to use. And I promise, I won’t data-mine you like Facebook does 😉

Here’s the invite link to take you directly to my Facebook friends channel, just click on this link: https://discord.gg/r4sFkVr

The First Episode of the Metaverse Newscast Is Now Up on YouTube!

M E T A V E R S E.png
Metaverse Newscast Logo (Background vector created by Rawpixel.com – Freepik.com)

I am very happy to announce that the very first episode of Metaverse Newscast is up, after months of planning and hard work! The first episode is an interview in High Fidelity with Cedar Librarian, the winner of the Best Avatar contest at the recent FUTVRE LANDS Festival:

To start, we will be posting Metaverse Newscast videos to a brand new YouTube channel. In future, we may look at other places to post videos. We have already purchased a domain name for a future Metaverse Newscast website, but for now, I will be promoting new episodes of Metaverse Newscast via this blog.

This entire enterprise would not have gotten off the ground without two people whom I would like to thank:

  • Tyler Scarborough, who first approached me about starting a regular show, and who built a lovely studio in Sansar where we will conduct some of our interviews. Metaverse Newscast would not exist at all without his initial idea.
  • Andrew William, my hard-working and talented producer and video editor, who (with occasional second cameraman Carlos Austin) records the individual Metaverse Newscast segments. I want to thank Andrew from the bottom of my heart for all his tireless work getting the Metaverse Newscast off the ground! I would be lost without him.

Our goal is to produce and release at least one episode a month to start, where we cover various metaverse events and interview the personalities behind social VR and virtual worlds. Note that we will focus on the newer VR-capable platforms (Sansar, High Fidelity, VRChat, Sinespace, AltspaceVR, etc.) rather than older virtual worlds like Second Life.

We have four more episodes that we are currently working on, so keep watching!

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: What Christmas Trees and Advent Calendars I’ll Be Hitting on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

evelyn-46598-unsplash.jpg
Photo by Evelyn on Unsplash

There are various locations within Second Life where generous content creators have placed free Christmas gifts under the tree:

  • FaMESHed Event: You can join the FaMESH ed group for free to pick up the gifts under this Christmas tree. As a bonus, there’s also a wheeled cart off to the side where you can still pick up an assortment of gifts from a recent autumn round of FaMESHed!
  • The Dubai Event has an assortment of gifts under their Christmas tree (including a particularly nice blue and gold ballgown by Virtual Diva, for Maitreya Lara mesh bodies only).
  • The Free Dove has gifts under a large Christmas tree, located to the right as you enter the freebie store. You do need to join The Free Dove group for free.
  • The Swank Event has quite a few gifts under their tree outside, but also many more scattered around outside in the snow! So wander around and see what you can find. No group is required.
  • Epiphany has some lovely gifts under a Christmas tree in the centre of the event. No group is required.
  • At the Man Cave event, the “tree” is a stack of green beer bottles, and the “gifts” are beercans with red ribbons standing underneath it! There are over 30 gifts here, all for male avatars.
  • The VERSUS event has five gifts at the landing point, including ice skates, roller skates, and a jetski, and there are many other gifts which are located in Christmas stockings at the various vendor booths. You must join the VERSUS group for free to get these gifts, including the Estephania full-body female mesh avatar by Altamura, which previously was a gift in the SL Frees & Offers Hunt. (UPDATE: Although this was a free group join when I first visited, the organizers have since raised the group join fee to L$50.)
  • The Très Chic event has a pile of presents under the Christmas tree outside, plus gifts at some of the vendor booths inside. Join the Très Chic group for free to get these Christmas gifts.
  • As in past years, the Cosmopolitan event has gifts in over 30 Christmas stockings hung on the large Christmas tree at the entrance. You do have to join the Cosmopolitan group for free to get these gifts.
  • UPDATE Dec. 23rd: I just found out that all the gifts under the Christmas Tree at Sn@tch will be FREE on Christmas Day!
  • UPDATE Dec. 25th: Fallen Gods has a wonderful assortment of gifts under their Christmas tree! No group is required.
markus-spiske-466188-unsplash
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Most of the advent calendars and 12 Days of Christmas calendars operated by in-world stores in Second Life require you to show up each day to get the advent gift for that date. Sometimes, you may be able to purchase previous days’ gifts for a small fee. But there are a few calendars which allow you to pick up today’s gift, plus all the previous days’ gifts, for free or a small group join fee. Here’s a list of locations where I intend to visit sometime on Dec. 24th or 25th to pick up all the gifts at one time!

  • ALB Dream Fashion & ShuShu has an advent calendar where you can pick up most (not all) of the previous days’ gifts. No group is required.
  • At ML Fashion, you can not only get all the gifts at once on their Advent Calendar on Christmas Day, you can also pick up their Peace on Earth Hunt prize, which is tucked away at the very top of their Christmas-tree-shaped calendar! No group is required.
  • Both Emerald Couture (women’s wear) and Emerald Man (menswear by the same designer) have not one, but two Advent calendars: one requires you to join their respective groups (for free) and you can only pick up gifts on the appropriate date, but each store also has a second Advent calendar which does not require a group, and you can pick up all the previous days’ gifts for free! (Use the provided SLURLs to find the exact locations of the no-group-required Advent calendars; they are in a different location than the “regular” Advent calendars.)
  • JUMO has a 12 Days of Christmas calendar where you pick up all the gifts at once. Remember to come back on New Year’s Eve for a final gift! All gifts are free and do not require a group membership.
  • And, last but not least, Altamura lets you pick up all their 12 Days of Christmas gifts under their Christmas tree at one time! You do have to join the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group for L$25 to get these gifts, which include the Omega-compatible Leila Bento mesh head for female avatars, and a nice set of Omega skin appliers, in all the Altamura skintones, to use with that head! And apparently, they will also put out a male Bento mesh head as an Advent gift well sometime in the coming days. Altamura often has group specials and gifts throughout the year, so it’s well worth it to spend the L$25 to join their group now, and stay subscribed (usually, the join fee for the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group is L$50).
  • UPDATE Dec. 25th: Surprise! Firelight Hair has made all the previous days’ Advent gifts available for free (you do need to join the Firelight group for free).

So, there you have it! Play your cards right on Christmas Day, and in one series of teleports around the grid, you can pick up dozens and dozens of Christmas presents for free or next-to-nothing! Happy freebie shopping!

andrew-neel-48762-unsplash.jpg
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

 

Tyler

As much as I now hate Facebook, I will admit that there are times when it comes in handy when you need to get a message out to a lot of people at once. And sadly, that still applies even in times of tragedy.

My sister-in-law Michelle (her sister is married to my brother) is a wonderful, warm, funny person, who is also the loving grandmother to an 8-year-old boy, Tyler, who lives in rural Manitoba with his mother.

I found out yesterday that she had posted to Facebook on Wednesday, December 19th:

why… Why… WHY!!! 🤬

My grandson choked on a carrot at school yesterday morning and went into cardiac arrest, several times. He had 33 minutes of CPR performed on him in about an hour and a half because his heart kept stopping. He was air lifted to Winnipeg by STARS and is fighting very hard in PICU at Children’s Hospital. I’m trying to stay positive but tonight I’m so very very angry. This is not right.

Yesterday, she posted an update with a photo of Tyler:

Thank you everyone for your incredible support, kind words, and prayers during this sad and difficult time. Tyler’s MRI results have revealed that there is severe damage and swelling in his brain. Sadly he will not be able to recover from it. He is still on life support and is slowly slipping away from us in his own time. We had him for almost 9 years and every one of them was a wonderful life changing gift. My little buddy is leaving us but he will never be gone; he will live on in our hearts and our memories. Thank you Tyler for teaching me how to be brave, have hope, and for loving me unconditionally. For all the loved ones waiting for him on the other side, give him a kiss and tell him his Lola loves him! 💝

Tyler 1

Her family—our family—are reeling at this time. Tragedy can strike any family out of nowhere; there is no preparing for it. You just have to live through it, day by day, hour by hour, even minute by minute as necessary. Michelle’s family is now gathering in Winnipeg from far and wide, and they are going to be facing some extremely difficult days ahead, as they make decisions no (grand)parent should ever have to make about a child. This is heartbreaking.

If you believe in God, please keep Michelle and her family in your prayers. If you don’t believe in God, then please do something concrete (and do it even if you are a person of faith): tell your family members how much you value and appreciate them. You never know when a tragedy like this could happen and rob you of an opportunity to mend fences, build bridges, say “I’m sorry”, or say “I love you”. Christmas is always a time for people to get in touch with relatives and friends they have not spoken to in a while. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

UPDATE 3:35 p.m.: Michelle posted this message to Facebook:

Thank you Ryan for this beautiful blog post and to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Tyler passed away peacefully today at 12:28 pm. He will always be with us in our hearts and memories and for some very lucky people he will make a life changing difference by being an organ donor.