How many are on strike?

[Harper Ganesvoort]

Out of curiosity, how many of us are participating in the strike Gwyn called for over the trademark question? If a lot of you are, I apologize for seeming a strike-breaker, but I feel some one of us should cover the news.

I'll publish on this based on replies tonight around 7:30 SLT.

Peace, Harper

[CodeBastard Redgrave]

My answer to dear Soph:

Strike != Silence

Thing is, Soph, we never talked more about the matter! Us bloggers refusing to post for 3 days was to raise awareness, and make people talk about the issue. And we never talked more about it. Point made. =)

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

I too won't stop posting, depriving the world of me for three days would be a crime worse than anything Linden Labs has done.

But seriously, I plan to continue to post - the more we rabble rouse and actually post using terms, names, and icons that Linden Labs has stated they will not tolerate - the faster we will force them to take action. The faster they take action, the better - it will cause *something* to happen, which is better than a silent stalemate.

If both sides are silent, Linden and us, that isn't helpful. People don't notice voids, they notice activity. In real world strikes, the strikers picket and make noise. They stand around and force the world to take notice of the inequities of the situation. In the virtual world, silence is the *opposite* of what picketing and participating in a strike in the real world is like - it's like all of the workers went home and stayed in bed, it's more like a "sick out" than a strike. No one would notice because no attention was being drawn to the situation. The only ones hurt are those who actually go out and picket and have no support.

We should raise our voices in a cacophony of violations against their new terms, forcing them to speak up or risk losing their ability to enforce their new terms. Imagine if they started to send out Cease and Desist letters - and we ignored them. Then they would be forced to act on their own policies and suspend people.

Imagine the press that suspending well known and popular avatars would bring to this. It would bring more attention to this than being silent ever could.

If we don't force them to act and act decisively, they can be quiet about it and enforce it whenever they feel like it or hold it over our heads. This situation does not call for inaction, it calls for *more* action.

I plan to continue to stick my virtual neck out and continue to post. If the rest of you want to do what LL wants, which is to obey their new terms and not use "infringing" material, go ahead and don't post.

But then, I'm a rabble rouser who tends to be mouthy towards authorities.

[CodeBastard Redgrave]

Hey Tiessa!

If your way of striking is posting about LL Trademark policy for the next 3 days, well be it! haha!

<3

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

Gah! I'm not that thoughtful of a person to make a cogent enough argument to sway anyone. I just plan to continue to break their policy...

It appears I was in the middle of typing mine when someone else posted their, even better analysis of it. Too bad they beat me to it and made my post seem redundant.

I'm glad I'm not the only one, though.

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

I don't see why after making these lengthy posts drawing attention to it, that you don't continue to add more fuel to the fire. Rouse some more of us rabble...

Although, I've never been good at making a statement and then shutting up to give it more "gravitas", I'm a bit more pugnacious. :)

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

I call not posting "shutting up". It may be for a good rhetorical reason, like a dramatic pause, or to lend weight to it. But not posting, is not speaking. Drawing attention to it is not speaking. Speaking is speaking ;)

[CodeBastard Redgrave]

gawd Kit you are so ressourceful! <3

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

I don't believe you are all trying to be pedantic about silence as speech and drawing attention as not shutting up. I was not accusatory of you and I was not stating that you weren't achieving your aims, I was merely making a rather shallow and trivial comment to people who seem too wrapped up and serious to take it as such.

This smacks of the progression of the old Internet flamewars,. Remember, we are on the same side. The enemy is not me and my, evidently misplaced, sense of humor. Please expend your energy on the real cause, rather than preaching to the choir.

If it were me, I would be the one yelling and screaming, *while* standing in front of the tank. It's not an either/or situation. And citing examples for either side is a pointless exercise. Perhaps it cheapens my protest to act that way, perhaps your way works more often than mine, perhaps not. Let's not split hairs.

The point is to get Linden Labs to respond. The more methods used, the better, because they each come from different sides and each appeals to certain types of people. I won't/can't do your method and you won't/can't do mine. Let's agree to disagree on our respective tactics, but not on the ultimate objective.

[Tiessa Montgolfier]

Thank you all for calming down the rhetoric. I find it hard to be serious for too long. I was merely trying to say that for the moment, you may have shut up on your posting. And that I, not having as much self control as that, had not.

I was not indefinitely temporizing your "being shutup", just a statement of the moment about the moment.

I never try to harm or insult. If it appears that I just did that, sit back, and remember, Tiessa is not that sort of person. Perhaps I'm reading more into it than I should.

[Cat Magellan]

I am barking at that particular thick tree, don't worry, Rheta ;)

[Vint Falken]

Rheta, it is the situation here that makes the difference, not the action of the purposes. A sole man shouting at the tanks would still get more attention that a sole man standing silently on a busy throughfare all day. ;)

[IYan Writer]

People notice a *change* in activity. Whether from activity to silence or vice versa.