By “this”, I mean the topics of what can and can’t be done in our virtual world, who can and can’t review things, who stole what from who and how much. Those are all important topics, but I’d like you all for a moment (or an hour, or a day, or even longer) to put them aside, and instead think about this:
Encourage your friends to visit, and sign. This is the real stuff.
I am so There 
#1 by PlAiNHaVoC on 2012.11.26 - 8:35 pm
Thank you for posting this MW, Real life is more important than anything digital, and it is sad that someone so young had to die for WISHING and speaking out for equality. The world is not yet civilized, that was pushed aside for “political correctness” and contempt of anything or anyone different.
#2 by Nathan Avis on 2012.11.23 - 10:14 am
Great of you to share this video, MW. 🙂 a noble cause and that little girl can have our taxpayer money any time. I just wish many in my own country (where she was treated) much older than her valued education, freedom of thought and peace as much as she does.
#3 by DavyRocket on 2012.11.21 - 5:04 am
While this is a sad story, and my thoughts go out to her, and her family. The fact is this happens everyday around the world, even in the USA. No one has the right to take the life of someone else nor themselves for any reason whatsoever. What is really sad is unborn children that never even gets a chance to see the light of day are murdered everyday. Oh but we call that Abortion, I guess because it just sounds better? Murder is murder.. Abortion IS MURDER!!! What a sad, and sick society we live in when we accept killing unborn children, and call it Abortion. Or killing a child because she wants to further her knowledge, but a virtual world is more important to some. I guess it is okay for it to happen to others.. Until it happens to YOU!!!! Then you expect sympathy from others, or everyone. SICK SICK SICK.
#4 by fulkenstien on 2012.11.21 - 5:34 pm
but a virtual world is more important to some.
well duh.
for the most part this forum of MW’s is about a virtual world.he does use it once in awhile to share his views about other things but mostly about there.com.
dont get me wrong i am NOT FOR ABORTION.
i really dont feel this is a proper place or time to open that can of worms.
but since you did.
abortion is bad but i hate to say it,its better than the alternitive.you have to understand people are very stupid.this is 2012 and there is still somethings called unwanted pregancies.churches that tell people that contraceptions are a sin.rich people that say too many poor people on welfare having babies so lets cut funding to clinics and planned parenthood that try to educate teens about contraceptives(huh?i really dont understand that logic).
then the idiots that yell the loudest about caring about the unborn but dont give a shit when born.
#5 by SaltySilver on 2012.11.23 - 2:26 pm
My sentiments precisely.
#6 by Kelayna Hilton on 2012.11.20 - 1:49 pm
Wish could have seen this earlier, the petition was given on november 10th 2012
#7 by Mimi There on 2012.11.20 - 4:05 am
Some simply refuse to read between the lines. I am so greatful my children and grandchildren have the “choice” to even have an education. Proud to say, they have used it to its fullest. This young child Malala has no idea what an impact she has made in the world. I hope others view and follow her “story”. Happy Thanksgiving where ever you are and where ever you are from, count your blessings.
#8 by Lady_Tigrane on 2012.11.19 - 6:08 pm
I find it ironic that instead of discussing the topic of the link MW posted, people are using it to bitch about the whole designer conflict. Go visit this page link MW posted. Sign it. I did.
#9 by Michael Wilson on 2012.11.19 - 6:32 pm
Amen to that. Thanks.
#10 by yankeeinthesouth on 2012.11.20 - 4:11 am
Umm, just because there was not a comment doesnt mean nobody checked out the link. I signed and posted it on my facebook…. but thanks for assuming. 🙂
#11 by Phil Reinsmith on 2012.11.19 - 1:05 pm
Thanks for Posting the Malala Story. I gave been following it since to attack, but was unaware of the Foundation, or the website. What a brave little Girl from a Brave family.
#12 by Orielle Thereian on 2012.11.19 - 7:22 pm
Same here, been following her story since the day I heard of the assassination attempt of her just because she wants an education. Thanks for sharing this link.
#13 by yankeeinthesouth on 2012.11.19 - 12:15 pm
Why not apply the same real world rules you do in some of your rules? If the original designer can prove their design was stolen then the theif is removed from future designing? Just a thought….
#14 by Jonathan5k2006 on 2012.11.19 - 12:00 pm
Recently i have complaints on There.com by an individual who shall not be named, His words were ” Everytime I submit something, it always gets declined, I have done everything by the guide lines” i explained to him that i dont know why but from my position with allowing others in world to review… I think its starting to sound like ( Reviewer For there.com) ( Avatar: Shallnotbenamed has submitted Item Example) (Reviewer, I dont like that person so hell no to him! i hate him) I think people who have grudges against other avies are purposly declining products.. This isnt fair.
#15 by Michael Wilson on 2012.11.19 - 12:29 pm
If there are reviews like that, please send them to us. As I’ve stated in another Blog post, reviews like that aren’t tolerated, and the penalties are clear, prompt, and harsh. :-).
#16 by soede on 2012.11.19 - 1:11 pm
Any rejections not based specifically on copyright or TOS issues (or different peoples interpretations of where those lines are) seemed to have stopped in the first few weeks of the review system testing. If someone is having things regularly rejected it may be that they are misunderstanding the rules or pushing the line. i would encourage that person to talk to a few people who are not getting rejections or people who have done a bit more research about copyright issues to get a little perspective as to why.
If it really is a case of negative reviews for absolutely no reason, report it and I’m sure MW will apply the Banhammer of Righteousness where needed =p
#17 by coolnet560 on 2012.11.19 - 11:26 am
I agree. As a community we should all work together and compromise to find a way we can make sure that texture theft is a big NO and trying to encourage members on designing. From what I don’t understand is why do they do it? Soede made sure as well as other developers to bring back the University Of There. If you are confused in designing or have any questions about developing. Join the UOT program. Also, Unicrystal has her own program as well. There are many developers out there who are willing to help everyone out.
Now as how to prevent people from stealing textures, the best bet is to come up with an encryption to prevent people from stealing textures from the There Client folders. Now this might be a big work to do, but until people learn how to stop stealing textures this is my only best bet. Also, another way to prevent it from stealing textures is limit those who are new members. By that I mean, if you are new to There, you need to have a Gold Fun Pass to review must be in-world for at least a month. Once you are ready to review an item, you must go through steps and prove yourself that you are qualify to review. You must be able to take a quiz and if you get an 8 or above than you are okay to review items. Now I didn’t mention about submitting items. I think everyone should be able to submit because you pay for the access, but as for reviewing that would be a different story. Once you steal a texture from someone and have been caught, it should be an immediate banned. The way I see it is by looking at the real world. They don’t give you a second chance. If you are stealing a car that’s grand larceny, and they will prosecute you to the fullest extent. Honestly, there should be no excuse in stealing someone else’s texture.
As for copyrighted material, the rules would be applied as in the Old There.
“Approvers will reject copyright infringing submissions when they are reviewed, and the actions taken will be as follows:
1st Offense: Developer will receive an educational warning.
2nd Offense: Developer will receive a 50% refund of the submission fee and a warning that continued violations will result in further remedial action, which may include suspension from the There Developer Program.
3rd Offense: Developer will not receive a refund of the submission fee. The third offense will result in further remedial action, up to and including permanent suspension from There.
A suspension from the Developer Program means that a Developer will not be allowed to make submissions for at least thirty (30) days. If during this period a suspended Developer attempts to make a submission, the submission will be rejected, the Developer will be notified and no refund of the submission fee will be granted. An assessment of the Developer’s case will be made after the suspension period.” —> Quoted from Developer Guidelines.
I hope we can all work together in finding a peace and calm way to prevent texture theft and copyright infringement. The things that I mentioned above is only an example.
#18 by Michael Wilson on 2012.11.19 - 11:37 am
“Now as how to prevent people from stealing textures, the best bet is to come up with an encryption to prevent people from stealing textures from the There Client folders”
This isn’t really practical:
. Textures would have to be decrypted (which is a non-trivial operation) every time they are transmitted from There to the client, and every time they are read from disk to be displayed.
.Since decryption requires a key, the client program would require that key, and it would only be a matter of time before someone extracted it, and used it to decrypt the textures on their own.
. This means that we’d have to:
. Not cache textures on disk, and re-transmit them each time (with a new key so even if you guess it it wouldn’t do you any good, Or,
. Periodically invalidate all the encrypted textures, and force you to re-download newly encrypted ones
All of these solutions would certainly prevent people from stealing textures, but mostly because the client would perform so poorly that no one would use it, and it wouldn’t be an issue any more.
#19 by Jonathan5k2006 on 2012.11.19 - 12:40 pm
i am so glad, that I do not have to be putting up with the review process but it was nice to try and help someone and then raise a thing on here to you,,, im glad you agree Michael, i will surely let them know what you said to do. I think 15 submissions by a person and all getting declined is out of order. But thanks, I will certainly advise what you said.
Thanks.
#20 by soede on 2012.11.19 - 12:57 pm
Personally I think the review system is going in the right direction and all it really needs are some tweaks. I’m confident those wrinkles will be ironed out! Encryption would be nice in theory, but I’d really love for us to move past this stage and let the development team focus on other crucial aspects of our world.
Training is one area that would help a lot and I hope some sort of step by step tutorial going over the practical implications of the TOS can be put in place as a test before people are allowed to review. In the meantime it’s important to educate ourselves as to exactly what the rues are instead of just taking our friends word for it. To that end, the UoT is putting together a class on reviewing as there are many misunderstanding about what constitutes texture theft vs. idea theft and how to interpret various copyright disclaimers, including the grey area we can run into.