AlisonJamesArt
Explorer of physical and virtual environments, an adventurer of the mind and a creator of fantastical things
Entitlement and Gratitude
Ok…so I am going to have a bit of a rant here today. If you don’t want to hear it, perhaps you should just look away for a few minutes while I get this out of my system because I have been seething over it all day and it’s time to stop laying it all on the people I love and just get it out there so I can let it go and move on to being positive again.
/rant on
So there is some talk going around about the new BVNUniversity which quite frankly, I am SUPER excited for. I have looked over the courses and plan on taking a few, time permitting. My lovely friend, Alicia is doing one on January 6th at 8am SLT. I will not miss it for anything and you should all book yourselves into that one ASAP because she is not only AMAZING at what she does as a blogger and vlogger, but also she is one the best, nicest and most patient teachers I know. Now this brings me to that fact that these courses have a Linden dollar value attached to them, which I have heard people grumbling about. Let me try to make my position on this somewhat clear…
- I believe the BVN courses are more than fair and wholly affordable for what you are getting. Let’s break this down a little. BVN are asking $L1500 per course or $L10,000 for the whole suite of 12 courses. $L1500 is equivalent to a whopping (sarcasm implied) $USD6 at the current exchange rate. That is less that what you would pay for a book and THIS is interactive! Don’t try to give me the whole, “Oh but that’s real life and this is only Second Life…” excuse. The CONTENT is real. You wouldn’t think less of the content if it was delivered online anywhere else. So why here and now? You can ask whatever you want in a smaller group setting. You can take notes and meet some of your favourite bloggers and vloggers. People blow 1500L on stuff everyday that they use once or twice and then it ends up sitting in their inventory. At the end of the course, you will have LEARNED something and you will be better at what you do because of it. Which will in turn lead to a better quality of content for us all to enjoy.
- I also believe that it is important that these jobs remain paid because there needs to be work inworld to drive the economy that is not just stripping, dj’ing, being a product creator or a land baron (yes…I know that is oversimplifying…but really, when a noobie asks the question how can they make money inworld, those are always the answers that follow.) It allows bloggers and vloggers to share their knowledge in a way they might really enjoy, to continue to see the sharing of their skills as something that might have value and in this way, encourage them to stay in world and keep being AMAZING. Having a variety of occupations in world will help to make a healthy economy for EVERYONE. It keeps people interested in being in the world. And in turn, having those people interested in the world, being paid for what they love to do will keep THEM paying into the economy OF the world.
- There are a few people paying a lot of money to keep this going for many people. People love it when someone else pays and they don’t have to worry about contributing anything. And it’s all good up until the point where you mention that its starting to wear you down a bit and ask someone to throw a little money in the kitty. Now I am not saying here that people in the world aren’t generous, because as we have just seen with the For Max event, people ARE generous when it comes to charities. Businesses however, well…that just brings ALL the entitlement divas out in full force. BVN have been doing this free of charge for a while now. They pay for the land the free meetings are on. No-one has made ANY money off any of this up until this point, but they sure have PAID a lot of money into it. Everyone has volunteered. And that is great…BUT…you can only volunteer so long. Sooner or later, you will need something to keep you going and to keep the sim running and to ensure that you get and maintain a certain standard and quality over the long term. Land fees, recording fees, website fees, advertising, gifts, prizes…who do you think pays for all of that? Don’t you think we ALL should pay if that if we use the service? Don’t you think it is WORTH $USD6 to keep going?
- You are not ENTITLED to FREE anything. If it is free, it is a gift. You don’t HAVE to sign on to a class, or support the BVN and their work if it is not your thing. They are not forcing you to attend the classes to stay in the group and they are not saying they will stop the free services either.
- If you have questions or concerns, why don’t you reach out and ASK the founders yourself, or show up to one of their events. They had a question and answer session recently. Did you go? If not…why not? Don’t just spread rumours and misinformation. BE informed so you can in turn inform others.
So maybe instead of feeling righteously entitled to something you are not actually entitled to and outraged that someone offered you a quality assured service, you could find a little GRATITUDE for the work and money that has gone in so far. You could be thankful for the vision that has led us to this point where we CAN enjoy and participate in this service. And perhaps, you could be PROUD of the people who are asked to teach and those who have taken the risk and put this out there and created a new job stream for your second life.
/rant off
Refs:
Thank you to Delicate Flower who answered all my questions thoroughly and eloquently.
Bloggers and Vloggers Network website
http://www.bvnsl.com/
BVN University Page:
http://www.bvnsl.com/bvuniversity/
Bloggers and Vloggers Network Headquarters SLurl
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Inspired%20Dreams/223/81/3003
AlisonJamesArt 
I have noticed that any time someone or a business wishes to provide a service, there are people who believe that they should not have to pay money for it. They do not voice such dissent towards content creators, even though in theory we can all make our own clothing and furniture in SL.
However, I think part of the reason why there was some concern was because of the free workshops that were offered previously. Some people think that similar, if not the same, content will be taught at the paid classes. I believe the people that feel this way should not pay for classes, but to entirely discredit the idea is not right. There are those who will greatly benefit from live interaction, so why not pay for it if it helpful?
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