Talk:Second Life Railroad

Linden word on the subject ;)

I'm the Linden responsible for community-facing stuff on this wiki, so I hope this clarifies:

Okay, first, Jer, it helps to not type in ALL CAPS. That looks like shouting and has the unfortunate effects of provoking anger.

Second, this isn't Wikipedia, we don't enforce NPOV like they do. Sometimes NPOV is useful, but many articles are expected to have subjective bias based on real experiences, which can turn a dry read into something more vivid and useful — especially when it comes to culture. (We're more like TVTropes that way.) However, we're always subject to the Second Life Terms of Service here, so inflammatory behavior that violates that isn't cool.

It's fine to list related pages towards the end of an article. This is not out of scope. Linden Lab encourages connecting related ideas. On help pages, you often see this as "See also" or "Related resources". (This is common on Wikipedia as well.) The point is to provide broader context without diluting the article's focus. Without those links, most Residents would be at a loss as to where to go next — in this case, to find out about other railroads. So, it's alright to list "Other Railway initiatives", and I see some of these initiatives already have their own pages. That's the right thing to do, and that's great!

Hopefully railroad factions who aren't yet included will be inspired to make the listing more comprehensive.

What would be beyond the scope of this article? As an example, if other railway initiative descriptions began to take up multiple paragraphs and dominate the article — then those should be moved to other pages too. Again, I emphasize: simple links are good.

Carry on, choo-choo!

- on 2010-09-01 @ 4:58 AM Pacific

to torley linden,
the state of this article has changed, my efforts here have been somewhat successful, though i believe only temporarily so.
you do not seem to understand the "cat and mouse game" being played with the article's contents, opposing viewpoints are edited out.
commenting on STYLE rather than on substance is a tactic used to divert attention from the real issues, so are "ad hominem" arguments.
stryker and others insist that ethical standards such as wiki do not apply here, the article clearly reflects that stance.

carry on?
in fact, i had recently disbanded our "railroad faction" in-world, the commission.
most of the actual train builders in second life were commission members, people who actually use the slrr and generate fun and commerce in sl.
in late 2009 the commission successfully opposed the slrc/vrc/mole position to deprecate and restrict the slrr.
(an even more critical battle was fought and won against the slrc/mole position in 2008 by a couple of private residents including myself.)
but of course we can all go read about these controversies in the article titled "history of the slrr" can't we? no, we can't.
there is a conflict of interest in sl railroading, the commission disbanded because this conflict of interest became even more obvious and distasteful.
seems like it's reached your wiki now, good luck with that.

the vrc/mole group authors obviously "called in some muscle" rather than addressing the points i raised.
strangely, you do not seem shocked by these shameless, self-promoting articles which are published under the guise of wiki objectivity.
since you represent linden labs in an official capacity and have no problem with any of this, then i have no problem with any of this either.
i will therefore cease my opposition to these articles immediately.

as for the residents who made the personal and inflammatory responses that you refer to, forgive them, they are simply victims of propaganda.
jer straaf

• retracting comments from 11:09, 2 September 2010 (UTC) to Jer and Torley --Stryker J 17:02, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

This text-brawl needs to end now for everyone involved. I've given Jer Straaf a warning due to unuseful, inflammatory rambling which doesn't constructively followup on my earlier comments. Remember that there are many external places where dissenting opinions can be raised. This wiki, however, is owned by Linden Lab. - on 2010-09-02 @ 9:19 AM Pacific