Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Arcadia Asylum's inventory... it's gone: asset server issues are calamities

October 1 addendum: Thanks to the prompt efforts of Kona Linden who responded to NPIRL'er Ponk Bing's request, we have been able to verify that Arcadia's inventory is in place and appears to be fine. For more information, see the 16th comment to this post. Thanks Kona and Ponk!

Arcadia Asylum is the self proclaimed queen of trash in Second Life - and no, we're not talking about smut... she's strictly PG. Arcadia, whose first SL rez day is imminent, is peerless in giving a place that "urban decay" look. You see, it was Arc who built the now defunct Slum City, and Rags to Riches as well as the Pawn Shop at the Hobo Village Infohub.


I haven't finished introducing you to this feisty steam-punk urchin unless I also mention that she is resolute in her belief that all creations in Second Life should be open source and free. Her profile reads, "If you payed (sic) for anything made by me, even for L$1, you were SCAMMED!!!" Arc's made a pile of freebies, and they are - every single one of them - full perm.

Anyway, I got word on Saturday that the contents of her inventory had been wiped. If you know Arcadia and her builds, then you will probably agree with me when I say that this is a tragedy. (P.S. - In Arcadia's very, very special case, most everything she created is "out there," so her builds are still there. So are many of her textures, which she freely gave away when Slum City still existed. However, rebuilding your tools from scratch can't be anything more than a downer and a drag.)

Arcadia's vehicles can be found all over the grid.

Arc's reaction to the situation was to say that she was going to move on to other virtual worlds and go make her freebies there. We haven't heard from her since.


Hobo Village Infohub is a mess. An intentional mess. After the demise of the gambling industry in SL, Arcadia tossed slot machines in the bonfire there.

This got me mulling over the implications of lost assets. There are a handful of people in Second Life whose inventories contain one-of-a-kind treasures, not just of their making, but that of many other creators. What if their inventories were vamoosed?

I logged in last night and posted a question to the knowledgeable crew in the First Look group: if LL wanted to, could they back up a specific person's assets? "Probably not," was the reply.

Darn. I had hoped to propose that Second Life set up a program whereby, on an annual basis, a few people's inventories were given the designation of "Second Life Treasures," and then promptly backed up in order to preserve these repositories as living patrimony.

I realize that this would not be an easy program to implement. Beyond the technical difficulties, the selection criteria for whose inventories are the most valuable would most assuredly be a controversial and political Waterloo, but I still maintain that it would be worth the trouble.

Meanwhile, we are still Arcadia-less. For days now and every few hours I receive an IM from one great builder or another that begins "Arcadia's inventory is lost," or "has anyone heard from Arcadia?" The Friends of Arcadia clan, which is evidently enormous, is fretting. Is demoralized. Misses her... a lot.

Here, Arabella Steadman is wearing Arcadia's backpack... so complete with goodies, it might as well have a kitchen sink hanging from it.

Arc, if by any chance you are reading this... please come back. I hereby promise to give you anything from my humble inventory that is transferable. I think it is safe to say that so would scores of others.

32 comments:

Frequency Picnic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frequency Picnic said...

This is terrible! Arc, come back, we'll help! I have your hobo clam...
I would probably feel like quitting if the same thing happened to me, but please don't, or at least let us know where you're going next. It's just not the same metaverse without you.

Anonymous said...

The loss of Arcadia Asylum is a blow not only to me (I am a big fan of hers) but also to SL at large. She will be greatly missed.

The fact that her entire inventory was lost fills me with concern. This is a bad sign. That sort of thing will drive off the exact group of people that we want and need in our community.

So... Does anybody know which other virtual world she went to? May be worth a look.

Selby Evans said...

arc -- please come back -- we need you-
Some open source browser should be able to let anyone download their inventory -- if not now, soon.
Thinkerer

Tooter Claxton said...

My builds are getting more and more 'slapdash' and 'elegantly sloppy' (euphemisms for crap) since Arcadia is not around to point out the flaws in them. I haven't seen her for ages, with or without inventory. But that could be only me...

She's probably still among us, disguised as a box wearing newbie, or running some illegal casino/escort service, wearing a lot of bling, lagging up sims. Just because she can.
At least that's what I hope she does.

"Arc's reaction to the situation was to say that she was going to move on to other virtual worlds and go make her freebies there."

That's what I would say if it would have happened to me. But are there any other virtual worlds that allow the same freedom in creating things? I don't know, but I doubt it. If there are, tell me about it.

With her incredible, genius fixation on detail and the amount of time she spent working on her builds, Second Life was (is) a full time job for Arcadia. Let's just pretend she's having a sabbatical.

Heh, sounds like I'm in denial.

I miss her. No one calls me Mister Tooter anymore.

Bettina Tizzy said...

Hey Toot:

It appears that many options are beginning to poke their heads over the horizon:

There’s VastPark: http://metaversed.com/25-sep-2007/sneak-peek-vastpark-creator-readies-beta

Earlier this month, I wrote about HIPiHi and OpenSim: http://npirl.blogspot.com/2007/09/someday-galaxy-of-metaverses.html

There’s Multiverse (Hamlet, what did you think of it after some use?)
http://gigaom.com/2007/08/03/second-life-finally-gets-a-direct-competitor-multiverse/

Then a couple of days ago there were even more rumors that Google will step into the fray later this year:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/09/social-network-for-google-earth.html

On a more positive note, it appears that there’s hope for Second Life’s expansion yet! http://metaversed.com/24-sep-2007/architecture-story

Then there is Utherverse, though I hardly believe their claims... and it also appears that users do not have creation tools available to them:http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=771032

I don't know what the status is on There.com or Virtual Laguna Beach, but I understand that you cannot create things there, or at least are very limited on that front.

Anonymous said...

Love you Arc. xoxoxox
-Orhalla

Anonymous said...

So, copying your Inventory, putting it in a box and keeping the box on 16 sq m doesn't do it for backup?

Inigo Dench said...

For almost anyone else, losing one's inventory is a recoverable setback. For someone like Arc to lose hers is a disaster, of course - for dilletant builders like myself, nearly all the textures I use are ones that she has made and released for free... lord knows what other amazing things she has been working on.

But to lose Arc herself as a result is simply a tragedy. I do hope we see her again, though all we can offer is our appreciation. If anything at all, what SL seems to offer better than other places is an audience.

Anonymous said...

If have been looking for you for a long time.
Most of the stuff in my cellar comes from you.
You gave me a home after long lonely travels.

Gream Singh

Anonymous said...

... miss you my friend :)You missing from world much worse than your inventory missing. Love you the same even if you ruth with a plywood hat.

Pav

Hotspur O'Toole said...

Oh, hell. I'm so sorry, Arc. You were always nice to buffonish old me, and I always felt you were on of the guardian angels of hobokind. The (second) world is lessened by your passing.

And nobody else has ever called me Mister Hotspur. :-D

I have several items made by you in my inventory.. many vehicles, the bicycle, the clothes, the blimp, the c64. If you ever need to rebuild it all, I can help. Call on me inworld.

Hotspur

Hotspur O'Toole said...

Re: the subject of OTHER virtual communities. Depending on how narrow you focus things, there are dozens. I recommend "War of the Worlds" as a place to browse..

http://worldvsworld.ning.com/

Hotspur

Anonymous said...

There is a SL Blog entry somewhere that it is possible to recover lost inventories but it is a lot of manual Linden work. If for any case this effort should be done, it is for Arcadia Asylum's inventory. I think the leaving of Arcadia is the biggest loss to SL ever.
I will personally create a place where all the Stuff made by Arcadia can be collected again. It is simply not acceptable we are gonna loose the best things ever build in SL because of this again Lindens messup. I just created a group to try to do more then just grief over this loss. Please join if you have Arcadia Asylum items and await the next step the group will take. Ideas are welcome of course too.
group: "Arcadia Asylum Recovery"
- Sylvia Sonoda

Anonymous said...

eye heart arcadia

Anonymous said...

The ace kona got back to me pretty quickly after Orhalla and I spammed every linden we could think of, here's the conversation:

[17:03] Kona Linden: hi there
[17:03] Ponk Bing: hiya!
[17:03] Kona Linden: Has Arcadia contacted support?
[17:04] Ponk Bing: i believe so
[17:04] Ponk Bing: thanks for getting back to me by the way
[17:04] Kona Linden: Yeah, do have her contact support so that her issue will be trackdd
[17:04] Kona Linden: tracked properly that his
[17:04] Kona Linden: is*
[17:05] Kona Linden: lol...pardon my typonese
[17:05] Ponk Bing: no worries
[17:05] Kona Linden: in the meantime, let me see if I can pull up her acct
[17:05] Ponk Bing: have you heard of someone's entire invent vanishing before?
[17:05] Ponk Bing: okay
[17:06] Kona Linden: actually I have
[17:06] Kona Linden: but often, it was a matter of just clearing up their SL cache
[17:06] Kona Linden: is Arcadia around?
[17:06] Ponk Bing: we got her to try that, it was one of the first things we did
[17:07] Kona Linden: kk
[17:07] Ponk Bing: no, she's been offline since a couple of days after it happened
[17:07] Kona Linden: well I'm not at my office right now, but i can try a few things with what tools I have at my disposal...
[17:07] Ponk Bing: brill
[17:09] Kona Linden: now after she had cleared her cache, did anything show?
[17:09] Ponk Bing: i don't think so
[17:09] Kona Linden: hmmm...she had not filed a bug report, which is rather odd if one is having that kind of issue
[17:09] Ponk Bing: hmm
[17:10] Ponk Bing: it would have been the first thing i'd have done, i have to admit
[17:11] Ponk Bing: is it possible to take a look in her account to see if it's her or if it's the asset server (i really don't know how it works)
[17:11] Kona Linden: yeah, I'll run a few tests, but if you hear from her, do have her contact support...unless of course I can fix it =)
[17:12] Ponk Bing: hehe
[17:12] Ponk Bing: i will first thing, i can certainly get into contact with her by email or something
[17:12] Ponk Bing: she's been a little backwards in coming forewards since it happened
[17:13] Ponk Bing: the thing that made it seem like the problem wasn't at her end was she was naked
[17:14] Ponk Bing: or so i'm told, i didn't see her myself at that point
[17:58] Ponk Bing: any luck?
[17:58] Kona Linden: her inventory looks fine after transformed her inventory
[17:59] Kona Linden: I also left her a message to that effect
[17:59] Ponk Bing: okay, that's brilliant news, thank you so much
[17:59] Kona Linden: if she's still not seeing her inventory, then it's her connectivity on her end
[17:59] Kona Linden: hopefully, she's not running on wireless because SL doesn't support wireless of any sort
[18:00] Ponk Bing: okay, i'll pass that on, thank you for getting back to me and taking the time, it's really appreciated
[18:00] Kona Linden: no worries...she's lucky to have friends so concerned about her welfare =)
[18:00] Ponk Bing: she's well loved :)
[18:00] Ponk Bing: take good care, i'll see you about sometime
[18:01] Kona Linden: no worries =)

So, there we have it.

Arcadia's invent is fine, maybe she just needs to clear her cache.

Bettina Tizzy said...

High five to both you and Kona, Ponk! That's awesome news. Arcadia, come back!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting, i cleared my cache, didnt work. Sent in a bug report, no response. Made out a support ticket, nada, and im paying to be in SL, heh, go figure. About 90% of what i created is "Missing From The Database", been a month so far. Oh one tip, though im guessing most of you know this already, SAVE ALL SCRIPTS TO YOUR COMPUTER, as far as prim objects go what i created is gone forever at the moment. Checked my vendor, and guess what, objects "Missing From The Database". But anyway, that's life, have to be willing to lose everything, even in SL you cant count on what you labored to create will be there, even if you pay to play.

Anonymous said...

Arcadia, much people need you. If you leave definitively, the free spirit, *YOUR* free spirit in SL will disappear. Strarax Satosky left years ago and became a legend. Your are a an alive legend Arcadia. And we don't need a dead legend. Much people wait you in Calleta, Your land, Your home. Arcadia, do not leave on all that you did for us. We love you and we miss you.

Elvis Ireton

Anonymous said...

Arc,
i've lost random inventory a few times and it doesn't compare to yours in any way but... it's only matter of bytes even though I'm aware that every single bit hurts badly. Most important though is that you have not lost your creativity. I'm sure. It's your exceeding creativity that sl misses... badly!!

Hope to see you back soon,

Gina Glimmer
(redhead hobo)

Anonymous said...

Arc! We NEED you back. There is a serious void here. Maybe if you came back you could teach us some of your skills and we could all be better builders for it? Carry on your legacy?

I pledge to create any sound you could possibly need in SL for use with your builds.

Aitolda Cookjoke
(aka Benjamin Brennan)

Anonymous said...

the welcome back billboards are ready, hope to see you soon!!

Yohane Rockett said...

Oh No!

Anonymous said...

Arcadia, it was your stuff that inspired me to build and create a full city atmosphere, against the normal SL perfection of cities and such. this city started out with just a few buildings, and a hobo area, and has blossomed into a city with a working train, a working arcade with prizes, and soon contests, it has a bar, an office, high rises, low rises, slum apartments(the ones that started it all) as well as a trailer park, train stations, a service/gas station garage thing, even a motel. All this would not have happened if it were not for that nice chat we had that one day, I miss you and hope you do come back. If you do come back, please come see Movix and see what you have inspired!

Rhaorth Antonelli

Anonymous said...

I sense that your absence has RL reasons Arcadia... there's a lot of us hoping you are ok.
Please be sure to record the event if.. WHEN you do log in again... the onslaught of IM and inv-gives will almost certainly be quite spectacular.
(Lets all try to keep that in mind, ok people?)

I'm think I speak for all of us when i send some of that ikky 'fondest regards' stuffs, and hope that wherever you are, that you are well.

Anonymous said...

Arc! I miss you. There is a serious void here. Maybe if you came back you could teach us some of your skills and we could all be better builders for it? Carry on your legacy?

I pledge to create any sound you could possibly need in SL for use with your builds.

Anonymous said...

We’ve recovered a 463,000 inventory items that were lost and fixed 79,000 inventory folders. These belonged to a total of 143,000 Residents. They were not showing up in Residents’ inventories because they did not have a valid parent folder and many of them have been lost for quite some time. They have all been placed in the their owner’s top-level folder called “My Inventory”. If the items don’t show up and you want to thoroughly check whether they have been recovered, you can clear your Second Life Viewer cache, restart your Second Life Viewer, log back in and check your “My Inventory” folder.

In addition, on November 26th we repaired missing Library textures that a number of Residents had reported missing. These were for all the Residents that were on one of our inventory servers, where the problem had occurred. Sorry for not posting that at the time we repaired it.

We realize that these two repairs only recover some lost inventory. We continue to work hard behind the scenes to track down and begin to fix the root causes of inventory loss as I described in a previous post on our Inventory Loss Reduction Initiative.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/12/14/inventory-items-recovered/



Posted by Elvis Ireton

The Times of HOTO said...

Arcadia Asylem is one of the greatest builders in all of Second Life, and her dissapearance has resulted in a real loss to art within SL and a cause of some grief to her admirers and friends. I wanted to share a few things she taught me as we worked together on the now lost Slum City.

I had been learning building from Dagmon Zhukovsky and he kept telling me about Arcadia. We had a new sim then and we were building fast and as a new builder I was making a mess of things.

Then one night, sitting in a modular sewer section, complete with a detailed grid, sat this small "ratty" avatar with the cutest face and clothing of exquisit detail. It was Arcadia. From that day forward I followed her arround as she built Slum City. I was probably a bit of a pest then. I was able to create buildings around her work and to fill out the place. But what i did was crude in comparison with here work. The Bodega first appeared there and I watched her texture it. Then the Mission. After a while she was giving me lessons and basic pointers, for which I am forever grateful. She hated to waste prims and she taught me that for ever one unit of effort you put into an object you need to put in 10 units of effort for the textures. Textures fool the eye, not shapes, I learned. My builds improved greatly, and she was a wonderful mentor and friend.

Then there was that night when Slum City was destroyed in a sensless dispute that I could have preventd, if I had been paying attention. After that I would track her down and try to talk, but the pain was too great for both of us. I never thought I would feel genuine loss in a silly virtual land like this, but my loss is real, my regrets for that night are also painful.

I'm certain that she is still with us, certainly I see her creations everywhere in SL. And when I see her fantastic objects with there fine detail and ironic twist, I am proud to know that I knew her once and that she shared her talents with a silly newbee who will remember her always.

Punky Pugilist
www.TheTimesOfSL.com

Anonymous said...

It took me several monthes to find the Hobo Village Infohub. Don't ask I was damn stupid, simple as that. A desoriented newb without any clue and not really trying to get smarter. But then I found it after I checked who the heck built all those urban stuff I kept finding. And I found Arcadia's pawnshop, the hub and the whole area around it and was blown away. I really felt that I got in touch with something ... with the "soul" of SL perhaps. It was like a revelation.

Even if I don't know Arcadia it breaks my heart after reading this. The loss of ten thousands newbs like me is plain nothing versus the loss of one person like Arcadia. But I got her massage and I'll try hard.

Hopefully she'll come back some day and I would like to say to all you creators and oldies: for grids sake, please stay, please keep up your work. You are SL. Or we newbs are doomed to live in a metaverse full of brainfrazzling shit.

Anonymous said...

Still miss her. I became featureless but happy Hobo through Arcadia's profile that took me my final home Calleta when I was newbie. And finally came across with Arcadia only twice in that Village.

Like someone else said, it looks like communication problem, not a technical problem actually. And it is somewhat vacant that her inventory is finally ok.

In the end, SL is just closed platform depends on a private company. It cannot be air and someday Linden Lab will end.

Nanjido Oh

Anonymous said...

You can find her here:

Aley Arai, Explore the reaches of space, Privateer Space (156, 189, 46)

...as 'Aley Arai' doing her communist thing and being a complete power freak Fascist. The sim is beautiful, I'll give her that... but she has this rule about ONLY having physical vehicles there. Well, I had spoken with her before and we discussed the fact that 'I' believe art needs to have a price, so that artists, can survive. It doesn't have to be huge, but they need to eat! She cut me off. Ok. I ran into her on that sim a few times and she was still holding a grudge... well one day I was on her moon level and I got an IM, that she doesn't allow nonphysical vehicles. I realized she must be talking about my flight enhancer, which even newbies KNOW are necessary to fly above about 160 meters, so almost everyone has them! They are a democratic device, given free... and NOT a vehicle, they are an attachment. So, I laughed and said, "But, this isn't technically a vehicle, and certainly not capable of turning me nonphysical its just if I fall from a platform, I won't tumble all the way down (that sim of hers goes up to 4000 meters plus!!)... whereupon, she 'banned me' right there, and tossed me into the corner of the sim where my avatar bounced up and down for about 10 minutes as I IM'd her and told her, that I still loved her sim, and I thought she was great, and maybe we could talk about it. I took my camera to her basement where she has a 3D map of her sim and she was standing there, watching my little prim symbol bounce up and down and getting smashed in the corner... she was staring at me suffering! as I IM'd her over and over pleading for her to be reasonable and talk with me... finally she just transported me home and that... was that. She is a nazi fascist, and a sadist... THIS actually happened EXACTLY as I recounted here... and a flight enhancer is NOT a vehicle, so I did not break her ONE RULE! I am 'DoctorEigen Flow' inworld, if you wish to yell at me and tell me 'she has her reasons!', and if any of you catch up with your admiration one day, ask her WHY? she banned me and then tortured my avatar for 10 minutes!? The owner of this blog may delete my comment here, as there is a kind of blind eye being cast towards maybe who this woman USED to be, compared to the bitter, narrow woman she has become. I love her art, I love her work, I think she has done a miraculous job on that sim!!... but when ideals turn your heart to poison... as I have copies of her other IMs to me, and they are bitter, I mean BITTER... she sees SL as a SLAG HEAP, LL as the devils, and people who make any kind of living at all... as demons.... she IS BITTER! Its sad... art is an expression of the mind, into matter... not the platform for hate... it's so sad.

Anonymous said...

this freaky land isn't from Arcadia and i can't imagin, that Aray should be her new identity on SL. the land will be closed soon by the Lindens, i don't know why, but it's not from Arc.

Arcadia, if you read this: i miss you too! all we hobos miss you so much and there are a few groups 'Arcadia is not dead' and so on - you're a legend now ;-)