My real life changes have affected how I am envisioning the future for our second life BDSM community Island of Pain.
IoP was never meant to be a commercial establishment – The idea has always been to run a self sufficient community where people with a common interest in BDSM could meet up to exchange knowledge, views and role play.
My personal opinion is that we have been very successful in this ambition as we have small and vibrant community that is making the IoP into what it is today.
There is one vision and ambition that haven’t been pursued hard enough, mostly based on how the power has been divided up until now. I have always envisioned a more community-driven IoP where a group of people are sharing and envisioning ideas that will push IoP into the future. A future that based on a community rather than the ideas of one or two individuals.
This is why I am changing how IoP is run – It will be run by a council instead of just me. One persons vision isn’t enough if IoP wants to evolve into what it can be. I see this as an infusion of new ideas and spirit and this is actually how I wanted things to be run from the start.
The Council will be embodied during the upcoming weeks and will consist of 4-6 people. We will also be more sensitive to opinion polls and information from the community itself. We want to create something you want, we want you all to create the Island of Pain.
What do you think – Should IoP be run by a council that have its ears to the ground, listening to the needs and wants of the community? Voice your opinions and ideas in the comments.
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I agree Stoltz this is the way to go!
I’m glad to see something happening and changing Good luck and I hope to see a newer brighter..well maybe not brighter but a different IoP emerge Good luck I’ll be checkin in!
I think this could significantly increase the enjoyment of our community; people enjoy contributing, creating as well as trying new things. Creative and shared efforts can themselves be pleasures, and many hands make light burdens. We are a diverse crowd in so many ways; the only way to please all of us is to have many choices, created together.
Having a counsel sounds like a good idea. More people having a voice in how things are run most of the time will bring vibrance to an environment and will not let it go stale. However all groups need a leader with initiative and authority: the counsel should be just that a counsel to the leader.
I think it is a very interesting idea, I have loved the place since my first visit there and I shall look forward to any progress made. A council is a wonderful idea – with the right leader
Im to new here to pass a worthwhile comment.
Just to say , good luck with the forthcoming changes.
I have enjoyed my first week or so.
Best
Okay, I will play Devil’s Advocate here: Will this council be elected or appointed? By whom? Or is it just an advisory panel?
Perhaps, a council is not really what is needed, but instead, a listing of members who wish to do things on IoP – a profile of what each member is wanting to do, be, or play: for instance, perhaps there is a group of people who would like to work on the Submission Statue game on a regular basis and develop it into an active game. Or maybe, a group of people who would like to roam the streets as captives and capturers, or a group of people who would like to welcome new guests and hook them up with others who are interested in the same kind of thing they are into(back to that list again), and the list of possible groups is probably endless.
The point is that perhaps focus groups on each of the existing elements of the sim might be more productive, at first, than a general council over the whole. Then, as the focus groups formed and achieved a set number of individuals, say 10 or more, they would elect a member from their focus group to sit on a Grand Council.
One could point out the success that Gor has on SL(which is out of proportion to its RL counterpart) due to its pronounced structure and attention to developing communities. The same for some of the BDSM -related narrow-focus sims such as BDSM prison sims, BDSM book-based sims, as well as for some non-BDSM based sims such as some of the combat sims.
Just what a Devil’s Advocate might think or say.
Meanwhile, I think that a change such as this might be good for the IoP community. Yea!
Good post LordSir Ninetails – You raised a couple of question that needs to be reflected upon. The outline of the council is not totally clear yet. As it is of now it will consist of people with a drive and passion for both SL and BDSM.
The council have a responsibility to listen to the community and then sort out plausible ideas and directions for things on IoP – But there are also a lot of variables to take into consideration and it is very important to me that the council and its decisions doesn’t turn into drama, which is not so uncommon in SL