Admin post: Mea culpa :(
Mar has committed a terrible faux pas, and I feel absolutely awful about it, especially considering my ongoing efforts to inform newbies about etiquette in Second Life.
Some time ago, Mar put together a hedge-making kit containing two hedge textures, a hedge sculpted prim, and the sculpt map she used to make that prim (which she found in a freebie, full-permission sculpt map pack). At the time she didn’t even think about checking the creator of the sculpt map to see if they had any wishes regarding the possible resale of the item (I was completely green about intellectual property rights in Second Life back then), and in all honesty I had completely forgotten all about it. That was incredibly thoughtless of me, and now that it’s been brought to my attention I’m utterly mortified, because I am not that person who does things like that intentionally.
I have now unlisted the kit from SL Marketplace, removed it from both of my Magic Boxes (which means that, even if someone has an old link open in a browser tab, the item does not exist and cannot be sent by the boxes – nor will they be charged for it) and also removed it from my little stall in Baileya. Since the kit was for sale for L$10, this means that Mar has made money out of it and, while the original sculpt map texture is from a kit that the creator offers freely, I still feel bad that this has helped to pay my in-world rent on the Newbie Haven (which is also my home) for so long. To that end, I’ve tried to make reparation to the creator, inasmuch as I can guess what I have earned from the item and can afford at the moment.
This is a public apology to the creator: Cel Edman. Cel, I am terribly sorry.
To everyone else: if you intend to put together anything as I did, please check the creator of any full-permission items that you intend to include, to avoid making such a faux pas yourself.
Please visit Cel Edman’s store, where you can find his free sculpt map kit, as well as many other great sculpt map packs for sale.
6 thoughts on “Admin post: Mea culpa :(”
Hugs!! Anybody who knows you knows you arent that type of person (who does things like that deliberately). What separates the good guys from the bad is not a lack of mistakes, because we all make them, it’s that the good guys fix mistakes as best they can, which you have certainly done.
Thanks, AK. To be honest I’ve been pretty down about this and I don’t feel much like blogging at the moment. I might take a week or two off and just inventory-sort when I want to login for a bit. I did, though, feel that it was best to blog about this, because I hoped that by writing about it I might be able to make other people think twice before committing the same mistake.
*hugs* I’ve never commented on your blog before but now I want to tell you that I believe it was just an oversight too and you didn’t mean it.
Thank you, Tashi. That means a lot to me :)
Mar,
I think you and your blog are both just awesome.
As someone who has goofed up more times than I care to count, I think it’s extremely classy of you to make such a public apology. Obviously you didn’t do this intentionally, and since so many new people follow your blog, this is an excellent example to them of “what to do when you goof” even if it’s accidental: Acknowledge, apologize, and move on. We’re all only human.
(On a side note, I’ve picked up several freebie build items that state, “Freebie, please do not sell”. in floating text above the vendor. I think it would be great if all creators added their terms in such an obvious way. )
Thank you so much, Stella. That means a lot to me. I received a message back from the creator, who was incredibly gracious about the whole thing.
We all do sometimes goof up, I agree. What made me feel so bad about it was that I try to set a good example to newbies and others (it takes a heck of a lot, for example, for me to lose my generally-positive nature in-world) and as someone who likes to help newbies I feel a sort of responsibility to do that, and not to mess up as I did! But, as you say, owning up, apologising, and then moving on are the best things to do. Take it on the chin, as my Dad always said :)
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