News and Editorial: Trouble in the Village

The Hotel at The Village

For all intents and purposes, it began on April 4. During Thornton Writer's popular Saturday morning game at Double Standards, a couple of people mentioned that trivia at the Village -- a region styled after the town of Portmeirion, Wales -- would be taking place shortly. They did not make this announcement in order to promote a little-known but high-quality game that they thought should receive more exposure but to call attention to a host described by one as "the wors most eveil trivia host in SL," a host whose strict rules required exact spelling and full names for people and places, as well as prohibiting "UNNECESSARY COMMENTS AND PERSON SPOILING THE ENVIRONMENT" (from the host's introduction). The host's tendency to typo and to draw his quizzes from the internet in full were also raised as evidence of his incompetence. The atmosphere of the conversation was such that curiosity -- including my own -- was raised very quickly, and a large number of players chose to attend the event to see how a person could come to be regarded as the worst trivia host in Second Life.

While most of the dozen or so people who shuttled over from DS to experience Trinka Breen's trivia for the first time -- and the several who had been there previously -- were perfectly considerate and respectful while everything that was rumored to be true of Trinka's trivia style came to pass, there was nonetheless an undercurrent of sarcasm and mockery in the proverbial peanut gallery. After all, when the first mention of Trinka's name earlier had been in one person's statement to another, "we could go to harrass trinka in 20 minutes," the tone was more or less set for at least a portion of the interaction that would ensue between some of SL's more active trivia players and the people who run and work at the Village, not only for that day but for the next several weeks.

Not all of the chiding took place during the trivia; typos like "uestio" and "naswer" became part of the SL trivia lexicon for some, and I myself hosted an Impromptu event all about the great "country" of South America. Before long, Trinka had become the Ed Wood of SL trivia, liked for his positive and friendly personality but something of a spectacle insofar as his style of trivia hosting strays from some of the practices that many of the more popular hosts take for granted. Such dubious beginnings were likely to spiral downward rather than remaining jocular for long.

Host Trinka Breen

In the meantime, a second series of events began taking place that seemed to be foreshadowed when, on April 22, Trinka asked Lotus Ceriano to remove her tag from Lilly's Irish Pub, at which she is a trivia host, or in his words, "LOTUS DNT PROPOTE NAY OTHER LCUB PLZ." Lotus complied, and the game commenced without further incident, but it provides context for understanding events that have taken place in the meantime because it suggests that staff at the Village have a broader view of what constitutes promotion than what many of us are accustomed to. Specifically, Lotus's cohost at Lilly's, Nelly Swindlehurst, found herself banned from the Village on or about Tuesday, May 5. And this is where the story becomes less straightforward. This began the trainwreck that makes the series of events news today.

Some trivia spots in Second Life are known to have owners who are especially prone to deliver bannings, including some that take place under circumstances widely deemed to be unfair, for offenses as seemingly innocuous as speaking between questions. Some will ban for advertising other events -- as Nelly was accused of doing -- and will do so without a cease-and-desist warning beforehand. When it happens, there is always grumbling, usually sympathy, and sometimes a decision on others' part not to return to the establishment in question. However, this is the first time of which I am aware that friends of the hastily banned individual responded as swiftly and vocally to protest the action. Since Nelly's banning, several other people who have complained about the incident have themselves had encounters with Village owner Catty Erde ending in their own banning.

Why so many people would be as ready to come to Nelly's defense might be due in part to her likability among those who know her, but likable people have been banned from other places before without the types of repercussions that have followed, including additional bannings, accusations of racism, snippets of conversation spammed across unrelated trivia group IMs, and a generally elevated level of tension among all of the parties involved. It is worth considering to what extent the aftermath of Nelly's banning is due as well to the fact that it happened at a place that people went to not for the quality of the questions or the amount of possible winnings (the Village only pays L$10 for each of 25 questions) but to get some amusement out of the host's inadequacies.

Since a large number of people had trouble taking Village trivia altogether seriously, that is, a severe reaction to an incident that may not have taken place was bound to draw more ire than it might have done at a more respected club. Whether that hypothetical club were respected for having good events, a longstanding history with the trivia community, or simply a lot of money to give away is less important; the fact remains that the Village has none of these, so being banned from it for an offense that the accused party (one who does not have a reputation for troublemaking) denies she committed seemed like a joke at best and an insult at worst and was unlikely to be ignored or quietly accepted. Thereafter followed protests that sometimes took on the same type of mocking undertone that laced previous ventures to Trinka's trivia.

With regard to Trinka, he began to fade into the background as a participant in the events while Catty Erde became the focal point. Less and less did people comment on Trinka's failings, while various people's conversations with Catty began to surface in public fora, including open chat and several group IM channels such as Trivia Fiends, Sharon's Diner, and (though Hummingbird Forster appropriately asked the person responsible not to use her group to spam drama) Double Standards.

The text on this sign by the Hotel entrance reads, "This is an international sim... If you do not understand have some patience and respect for those who are multi lingual." There is another sign, identical but much larger, just inside the doorway.

I reached out to both Catty and Nelly to get their respective statements regarding the precipitating events and to get a better idea of why Catty has responded as she has. The incident regarding Lotus's tag illustrated that the Village is unusually sensitive to people promoting outside events within its doors. It is thus unsurprising that they would ban someone if that person blatantly advertised for another location on multiple occasions, and it is within a sim owner's right to do so if she wishes. The question, however, is whether Nelly actually did what Catty claims that she and her staff witnessed her doing. Thus, my principal question for both of them was what exactly the charge had been. I was able to gather from both that Nelly arrived at the Village, came into the Hotel, and typed this:

[2009/05/01 12:10] Nelly Swindlehurst: Nelly Swindlehurst: Trivia at lilly's!!! starts very very soon! and I escaped in time to be here! yay :) come get trivial with us!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glendalough/208/126/36

Where the stories diverge, however, is that Nelly reports that this message appeared in the Trivia Fiends group IM, whereas Catty insists that it was posted in local chat. Since these perspectives are clearly in conflict (and since I tend to try to err on the side of misunderstanding rather than deception), I suggest that one of two things happened: either Nelly posted the message into local chat by accident while posting it to the several usual channels or else the message appeared in the Trivia Fiends group IM but someone -- Catty or another staff member -- believed that the timing of the announcement was fishy and copied the message into a notecard or another IM without taking note of which communication window it first appeared in. Unless someone who was present at the time is able to produce local chat logs that confirm one side or the other, we might never know for sure.

Another theme that emerged in my conversation with Catty, however, as well as in the statements she has released to me and to those who repost her words in public contexts, speaks to the question of how the tension developed between her and the staff members, on the one hand, and members of the larger trivia community, on the other. She has consistently emphasized that the Village is an international sim and that visitors can expect to interact with people who may not be speaking English as a first language.

The fact that this is true of Trinka was never in doubt; on the very first day that Thorn's regulars journeyed to the Village, JoshuaStephen Schism informed the group that Trinka is from India. Although English is an official language in India, it is not the only one, and regional variations can influence one's frequency of English usage. Even for those who don't know his national origin, it is clear from reading even a little of his syntax that it's not his most fluent language. In addition, many aspects of his trivia hosting style can be traced to language and cultural barriers, such as cribbing full quizzes from the internet, requiring exact spelling and full names because he might be unfamiliar with acceptable variations, and of course his neverending stream of typographical errors. In this context, the fad of attending Trinka's games in order to get a chuckle -- whether out loud or in private, at the time or after the fact -- was also a practice in finding amusement in someone's linguistic and cultural disadvantage and could thus be construed legitimately as racism. [Note, 5/14: Thorn suggested that "xenophobia" would be a better word here than "racism," but it doesn't look like he's going to comment on that himself, so I'm throwing it in there on his behalf. :) - LP]

I make this suggestion not to point fingers or to assign the R-word to anyone in particular but to call attention to how easily we can get caught up in the fun of the moment without thinking of the consequences or the social influences attached to what we do. I was as easily seduced by how goshdarn easy a target we had before us as anyone. And now in the aftermath, I believe that the best thing we can do is to stop acting defensively to such accusations simply because they come from Catty Erde, whose other accusations of late have been more questionable, and instead learn from the situation and move on.

When Catty points out that the Village's home of Dolphin Island is an international sim, it isn't to imply that the rest of SL -- or, indeed, the trivia circuit -- is not. It is to point out that it's a sim accepting enough of all nationalities that someone can host a trivia event in a language he is only semi-fluent in, with all the accompanying limitations, and have his quirks and foibles embraced rather than mocked. The multiple bannings and the irate communications from Catty that have been broadcast across external channels have, as I noted earlier, shifted the negative attention to her, and not without some reason; she is still the only person so far who has resorted to name-calling in the conflict, for instance, and seems to do so without apology. Nevertheless, her emphasis on the Village's international composition serves as a reminder that those who visit ought to be respectful of the location's intent, which may not actually be to draw the smartest and fastest trivia stars in SL but to attract those most interested in being part of a diverse and mutually appreciative international community.

The fact that some players conducted themselves counter to this goal could easily have raised the tension level in this environment, increasing the likelihood that someone like Nelly would take the fall and collapse the house of cards. Although her banning was very likely unjust, it occurred in an atmosphere that a large number of people were complicit in creating, or at least failing to prevent. The bulk of it seems to be over now and most of the damage done. It's time to try and have fun, be respectful, and get down to some good old fashioned trivia.


Photos taken at the Village: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dolphin%20Island/191/155/28