I financially back SLN. I provide the space where the team can rezz props. I provide the finance for the team to buy poses, items of clothing for that ‘naturist wardrobe’ that gets referenced from time to time. I’m the one who will bankroll the website when we make it our own .com site later this year. I’m the one looking long and hard at buying our very own ‘SL Naturist clubhouse’ sim where readers can meet in Second Life and socialise in  a sex-pose free arena in common with the values Ella, and Ella alone, framed. I’m the one who asked Ella to edit this blog when I set it up..

I’m not the only one who thinks she has done an amazing job over three years, and I’m not the only one who thinks her talents are probably wasted on an online game lifestyle blog, and that she should be writing for a more mainstream naturist media outlet, if not ‘professionally’ (in terms of it being a career), then certainly in terms of it being a paid, part-time job. Other than that, I’m ‘hands off’ because I don’t need to be ‘hands on’. If any recent  readers to the blog are asking themselves ‘who the hell is Howie?’, that works for me. That said, I felt I did need to comment on the ‘orgy’ post that seems to be vexing some folk.

The SLN team do a fantastic job and I have total faith in them to produce a wonderful blog that  currently manages an average of about 900 views a day. Pretty amazing for a blog about cartoon characters in an online game living a minority lifestyle.

Will someone, at some time, get something ‘wrong’ or go ‘off message’? Sure they will. It happens in government all the time. If the world survives when elected ministers of government are wasting millions of pounds/dollars/euros, or are caught with their faces down in a line of cocaine or a hooker’s cleavage, I imagine it will survive a marginal blog going ‘off message’ once in respect of an ‘orgy’ that wasn’t reported upon, nor photos taken at, nor even (in the end) attended.

I spoke to Diane on the grid this afternoon and she appears to be genuinely shocked at the response to her post and the potential damage to the reputation of SLN, and has decided to quit her position as a contributor to the blog. I find it shameful that responses to an off-message post should so discourage a valued member of the team that she should take this course of action. SL should be about fun, enjoyment, relaxation and the capacity, where blogging is concerned, to create a creative outlet for yourself and your avatar. None of us can be bothered with ‘drama’. I’ve assured her of my support in continuing as a valued and, yes indeed, trusted member of the SLN team. Equally, Ella maintains my full trust and support. SLN’s reputation grows by the day, both in respect of SL blogging and also in the context of RL naturist blogging. That has jack shit to do with me. That’s all down to Ella and the team. Diane’s an integral part of the blog’s success.

I’m also the one who is going to say, here and now, that it’s going to be Ella who will continue to dictate editorial policy now and in the future. Not me. Not any bloggers. Not any readers.

I’m sure Ella will respond in her own time on the matter.

Howie (SLN Publisher)