A Match Made In the SL-Heavens

Oh my, have I got news for you all! It is so exciting I can hardly contain myself, filled with jubilation and excitement as I am.

At the editorial meeting today I met with The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm etc, etc, at his mansion (a.k.a. "Gossip Central" due to the always well informed laird's highly dependable sources).

The laird had a particular bit of thrilling information to impart today, "directly from the two involved horses mouths" as he chose to phrase it.

Please sit down and breathe deeply three times before reading any further. This blog cannot be held accountable for any damages you may incur while reading this post!

OK, here goes!

His lairdship informed us that my Philip (a.k.a. Philip Linden in SecondLife or Philip Rosedale in first life) and my Ebbe (a.k.a. Ebbe Linden in SecondLife and Ebbe Altberg in first life) are romantically involved. So what we all thought was merely a bromance between our wonderful dreamer/creator and the best damned C.E.O. of Linden Labs we've ever had has evolved into a deep love between the two.

The guys have decided to move in together with both of their first life families as well. For that purpose a large mansion (sixteen bedrooms with ensuite baths) has been bought outside San Francisco for them and their families.

It is reported that both the wives and the families on either side get along famously with each other and are all for this somewhat unusual arrangement.

This is a marvelous - albeit unforeseen - development for SecondLife and all it's residents. Let us rejoice with the happy couple and their families!

Weylin Vale: "Unsubstantiated Gossip"

Today the GA WeBlog posted this statement by Weylin Vale, which is the first public reaction by the new GA Lead team on the events that have unfolded over the last few days.

"Good Day GA

Board Appointments and Estate Resignations.

On taking over the role of Lead I was informed by a previous lead and elder of the GA community that I should now put together my administration, there are no By-Laws to govern how this is done so as with my real world committees, appointments have been made purely on merit and suitability for the roles. Careful consideration was given to each role based upon experience, longevity in SL and trust.

Second Life in many ways is a small community and, as with all communities, personal disputes can arise and still cause difficulties years later. In this case, a past dispute, caused a member to decide to remove his estate from the GA. Another couple of members with close links to that estate decided to also leave the organization.

It is important to understand that these members were not asked or compelled to leave. They simply made a decision to leave the GA because they did not support the much needed changes. Changes that were urgently required to invigorate the GA, return it to its core mission and to prevent the loss of 12 member estates in the short term and, possibly, many more in the year ahead.

I am not going to name names or dwell on what has happened, neither will I fuel blog posts that are basically just unsubstantiated gossip based on the personal biases of one or two others. I am here to perform a job, as are those I have made a part of the administration team, part of that job is to work on producing Summerfest 2015, something that is fast approaching and also to future proofing the GA as we move forward.

Part of this has been to work on a new web presence and secure the domain name for the Gay Archipelago, this will include an interactive calendar to help member estates promote events. Also the GA’s promise to member estates is to be a community that promotes estates and raises traffic, something we need to do better, with a dedicated membership Director and admissions team I believe we can achieve better results.

More Festival Events.

With a permanent festival team and Director we are looking to move to seasonal quarterly festivals with the addition of the Autumn Hunt (showcasing all estates and merchants) culminating in a Halloween Party that will cross all the time zones. A spring equinox festival is also on the planning board.

So please rest assured, our mission statement has not changed, we are just putting weight behind our promises, the GA board along with the Treasury will be run transparently and I along with all the members of the team are here to answer any of our member estate owners questions (and dispel any myths). All major changes will continue to be presented at the estate owners meetings for approval and comment.

Together we are the GA community

Weylin-Vale

GA Lead"

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I am of course mortified (Not so much, no!) to be referred to as publishing "blog posts that are basically just unsubstantiated gossip based on the personal biases of one or two others", but would like to state that what some people call "unsubstantiated gossip based on the personal biases of one or two others", others call information from multiple usually well informed and independent sources.

It is true, I did report factually incorrect information concerning the GA Leads call to the meeting. This misinformation has been corrected.

It is worth noticing that the GA Lead in his statement stresses that "All major changes will continue to be presented at the estate owners meetings for approval and comment.". In hindsight, it would perhaps have been better if this had also applied to the composition of the new GA Lead team.

Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, I plan on publishing what information I have obtained concerning sim-owners/regions/estates that have already left or are leaving the Gay Archipelago.