Noun: A dictatorship in which the leader has power only because the people choose to allow them to remain. This necessitates a wise use of power and generally prevents abuses since the benevolent dictator loses power if they are unsuitable. (From the Wiktionary)
Why this post? There is currently some debate going on here at Your2ndPlace and at the International Stock Exchange.
The debate seems to be "Bottom-Top Vs. Top-Bottom" management/regulation and according to someone the VSTEX has moved from the first to the second stance, effectively aligning with the WSE.
This post will be probably disappoint someone. It won't be a deep analysis of the pros and cons of both stances. Here I won't be trying to change anyone's mind. People have been arguing on issues since the human race was born. They'll still do after this post of mine.
First off, to me financial markets on Second Life could be related to the situation in the US before the Securities Act of 1933. You can translate that into "an unregulated situation" if you like. Since that Act, more steps were taken but we won't go over the whole process now.
Let's just say that in SL we lack a lot of things (when it comes to policies, regulations, governing bodies and applicable laws) that we can have in "real life".
When the VSTEX was started there was an optimistic view of a community wanting and willing to work together, in order to build a lively virtual stock exchange. That was the philosophy before I joined the VSTEX (which happened a few later of it going public) and I must admit I quite liked it.
It did not work that way though. Now one may say that we just changed our mind, that we woke up one day saying "To the hell with shareholders, we'll do what we want and so be it".
Over the time we found out (the hard way) that exchange users were of 2 kinds: educated and uneducated (with the latter group being apparently the majority). Educated users know what they do, they often know how to game the system, sometimes they are not so well intentioned and they may resort to practices that would be frowned upon in the real world (when those practices are not outright illegal).
Of course there is nothing wrong with educated users per se, on our exchange there is plenty of well intentioned, honest, educated users.
Maybe we failed to create the conditions to develop a thriving community capable of setting standards and rules. That's a possibility. At the beginning we were too new to have a significant amount of honest, well educated users. There were the WSE, the SLCAPEX, the ISE. Extablished, bigger markets.
It didn't take much time before we had to face the Jasper Tizzy issue. Everyone who's been following SL financial news for a while should know about it. That led us to the conclusion that extra steps had to be taken, steps that the community wasn't still asking for. Almost all the requests we got at that time were along the lines of "Where's my money, I want my money, give me back my money".
Following that, we had to take a decision (someone here may argue "You really had to?" to which I would answer "Hell, yes") because we really did not like the "The CEO has fled, there's no money left, the company is delisted. Have a nice day." attitude that was standard for other exchanges I believe, before WSE's WTF (World Traders Fund) was born.
That decision was, to look for someone willing to take over the company (actually, the name and the listing with us since no money was left behind by the old CEO), trying to revive it and turn disgruntled shareholders into happy ones. At that time we did not realize it, but it was the first step for top-bottom management and regulation. Nobody ever asked for that (maybe because it was so unusual?), yet we did it. In the aftermath of the AVC history, I can tell we opened a canning of worms. However, I don't regret that decision. None of us VSTEX managers does.
Since then there have been issues with other companies and while the rules we've been adding have been implemented without directly asking the investors or running polls, the investors (of course, some of them) themselves have been asking us via emails and support tickets to build up our rules and make our control on listed companies more tight.
I'll quote Konner McDonnell:
"Evolving. Changing. Remembering. Like I expect all virtual exchanges SHOULD."
And Cocky Dagger:
"Sometimes issues can be more complicated than they appear and I would say the obvious choice is not always the best choice. I actually started out early on with one belief and time and experience has caused me to do a 180 from where I was at."
We reckon that some sections of our website should be updated and that we may want to rethink our strategies and goals. I could go on for miles here, however I'll cut it short here. I'll just invite everyone to our General Discussion forum (a VSTEX account is needed to login update: now everyone can browse our forums). We're always open to discussion.
Why this post? There is currently some debate going on here at Your2ndPlace and at the International Stock Exchange.
The debate seems to be "Bottom-Top Vs. Top-Bottom" management/regulation and according to someone the VSTEX has moved from the first to the second stance, effectively aligning with the WSE.
This post will be probably disappoint someone. It won't be a deep analysis of the pros and cons of both stances. Here I won't be trying to change anyone's mind. People have been arguing on issues since the human race was born. They'll still do after this post of mine.
First off, to me financial markets on Second Life could be related to the situation in the US before the Securities Act of 1933. You can translate that into "an unregulated situation" if you like. Since that Act, more steps were taken but we won't go over the whole process now.
Let's just say that in SL we lack a lot of things (when it comes to policies, regulations, governing bodies and applicable laws) that we can have in "real life".
When the VSTEX was started there was an optimistic view of a community wanting and willing to work together, in order to build a lively virtual stock exchange. That was the philosophy before I joined the VSTEX (which happened a few later of it going public) and I must admit I quite liked it.
It did not work that way though. Now one may say that we just changed our mind, that we woke up one day saying "To the hell with shareholders, we'll do what we want and so be it".
Over the time we found out (the hard way) that exchange users were of 2 kinds: educated and uneducated (with the latter group being apparently the majority). Educated users know what they do, they often know how to game the system, sometimes they are not so well intentioned and they may resort to practices that would be frowned upon in the real world (when those practices are not outright illegal).
Of course there is nothing wrong with educated users per se, on our exchange there is plenty of well intentioned, honest, educated users.
Maybe we failed to create the conditions to develop a thriving community capable of setting standards and rules. That's a possibility. At the beginning we were too new to have a significant amount of honest, well educated users. There were the WSE, the SLCAPEX, the ISE. Extablished, bigger markets.
It didn't take much time before we had to face the Jasper Tizzy issue. Everyone who's been following SL financial news for a while should know about it. That led us to the conclusion that extra steps had to be taken, steps that the community wasn't still asking for. Almost all the requests we got at that time were along the lines of "Where's my money, I want my money, give me back my money".
Following that, we had to take a decision (someone here may argue "You really had to?" to which I would answer "Hell, yes") because we really did not like the "The CEO has fled, there's no money left, the company is delisted. Have a nice day." attitude that was standard for other exchanges I believe, before WSE's WTF (World Traders Fund) was born.
That decision was, to look for someone willing to take over the company (actually, the name and the listing with us since no money was left behind by the old CEO), trying to revive it and turn disgruntled shareholders into happy ones. At that time we did not realize it, but it was the first step for top-bottom management and regulation. Nobody ever asked for that (maybe because it was so unusual?), yet we did it. In the aftermath of the AVC history, I can tell we opened a canning of worms. However, I don't regret that decision. None of us VSTEX managers does.
Since then there have been issues with other companies and while the rules we've been adding have been implemented without directly asking the investors or running polls, the investors (of course, some of them) themselves have been asking us via emails and support tickets to build up our rules and make our control on listed companies more tight.
I'll quote Konner McDonnell:
"Evolving. Changing. Remembering. Like I expect all virtual exchanges SHOULD."
And Cocky Dagger:
"Sometimes issues can be more complicated than they appear and I would say the obvious choice is not always the best choice. I actually started out early on with one belief and time and experience has caused me to do a 180 from where I was at."
We reckon that some sections of our website should be updated and that we may want to rethink our strategies and goals. I could go on for miles here, however I'll cut it short here. I'll just invite everyone to our General Discussion forum (a VSTEX account is needed to login update: now everyone can browse our forums). We're always open to discussion.
