I've met a few Lindens in my time, and more and more with each passing day. I've always been curious as to how a Linden name gets chosen. At the Virtual Worlds Conference on Wednesday, I met Red Linden, who was adorable. She's got a head of vibrant, fiery hair, hence the name (I presume; I didn't ask). But the derivation of other names are less obvious. Pathfinder? Zero? Iridium?

I'm not asking for a bunch of stories of how the various Lindens chose their names (though that'd be fun, if any of you have some good ones), but rather to ask: If you became a Linden, what would your Linden name be, and why?

At this point, I'm ready to call Mitch Wagner SLI's honorary member, I link to him so much. But he consistently provides engaging, non-condescending, embedded coverage of SL, so I'm likely to continue to link to him. To wit: some thoughts and observations on what constitutes proper business attire in SL.

I have to admit that while I have seen some outrageous and amazingly detailed avatars, I'm always slightly more impressed by those which attempt to mirror the resident's RL self. I once tried for an hour to make my human avatar look like myself, and finally had to give up; I later cozened Morrisa Aleixandre to do it for me, and she did a fabulous job. But I digress.

Moopf Murray had an uncomfortable day yesterday, when many people who ought to have known better IMd him accusing him of selling the CopyBot, because the people selling it in the store that was picketed yesterday had used one of his vendors.

For those who don't understand that explanation, a vendor will always show the creator of the vendor as the creator, because he made the vendor. So even if you go along and buy a vendor from Creator Man and fill it full of your stuff, it will still show Creator Man as the creator of the object because he made the vendor.

That other citizens should make this mistake and abuse the vendor maker roundly for selling the CopyBot is one thing. But now he has received a warning from LL for selling the CopyBot. It seems that they don't understand the concept that a vendor creator has no control over the contents of their vendors, and is not responsible for what their clients, who buy empty vendors, might put in them.

It is simply unbelievable that a warning has gone out to someone who is a creator too, and completely against the CopyBot and everything it stands for. This person is the most honest and upright person I know, and would no more rip off another creator than rip off his own left leg. Linden Lab should be collectively ashamed of themselves for sloppiness, stupidity and laziness. I hope they right this wrong and apologize --fast.

Edited to add Moopf's name with his permission.

Some angry comment on the forums about the problems related to the latest update, which remind me of comments I have made in the past. Please, Linden Lab, fix the bugs before you start on any more cool features.

Building is a pain at the moment, and so I am not doing the one thing I really adore in SL. Instead, I answered a call for a mentor who spoke French ... ok that's stretching my ability a bit. Someone who can get by in French lol.

I don't know what drives on the company to put in more and more features. Some people suggest that it is the investors who want more cool stuff, or the new residents. My argument is that if the creators get fed up with dealing with the building bugs, and stop producing content, that will get really old really fast -- and the whole world will be in trouble.

I know that the Lindens work from a Big List of Things to Do. I'd like to suggest that they have a smaller List of Things That Really Must get Done. And do them before they go back to the BLOTTD.

A thread on the forum about a mentor griefing people, reminded me that this was a subject I had intended to blog about.

When I first entered SL there were less than 10,000 avatars and many classes were run every day. SL basics classes, building, texturing ... all presented by mentors or instructors. At that time Char Linden was in charge of the volunteer groups, and she conducted a small interview with candidates and made sure that they were suitable to be mentors. You had to have been in-world for 30 days and to have a clean record to qualify, but more than that you were expected to run a mentor event of some sort or another at least once a month, or consider leaving the group.

Over the course of the last two years, I have run mentor events, helped new people to take the first steps in SL and answered calls for help at Help Island and in the Welcome areas. I had already concluded that the standard of mentor - and all meaning in the title - had already gone to pot. I have met mentors who can't get stuff out of boxes, for goodness sake, others wearing very mature outfits in PG areas, or joining new people to club groups before they can get off Orientation Island.

I think that it is certainly true that everyone has their forte, and some mentors are offering people expertise in appearance, or fashionable places, which I might not be able to offer. I do think that being a mentor should carry with it a requirement for people to be polite, unprejudiced, and non-griefing, with a minimum basic knowledge of SL. They shouldn't use their position as a way to promote goods and services to new people. They should definitely not give the impression that being a mentor makes them in any way superior to the other residents.