SupportforHealing unsupported?
by Tateru Nino 
May 6th 2008 at 3:30AM
Filed under: Culture, News items, Second Life
The situation at SupportforHealing appears to be deteriorating, with the organization as it currently exists heading for what looks like an imminent demise. The domain (supportforhealing.com) has expired, apparently due to lack of payment.
The owner, Zafu Diamond, has received donations via a paypal address at that domain, but there is no sign as to whether those funds will be used to pay ongoing fees for the SupportforHealing island in Second Life. Indeed Zafu Diamond's Second Life account is apparently no longer active (lapsed, canceled, or banned. It is hard to tell which).
Untameable Wildcat yesterday formally resigned from the group -- though there hardly seems to be anyone to hand the resignation in to. Wildcat's "Listening Ear" will be moved elsewhere, and objects removed. Wildcat hopes to get a new SupportforHealing web-site open in the near future on a new domain.
As for monies paid into Zafu Diamond's paypal account, it is unclear as to whether those funds are even being received at this time. Since Linden Lab will not discuss matters of island payments with anyone other than the owner, no member of the SupportforHealing organization appears to aware of whether the payments have been kept up, or whether the island is in arrears and pending closure.
The smart money would be on pending-closure at this point. There's no information to suggest that the island is a going-concern. If anyone knows differently, we'd appreciate hearing from them.
It's sad. We have friends who have been helped, assisted and supported by SupportforHealing on numerous occasions. We hope that the good work will be taken up and continued.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Aki Shichiroji said on 4:50AM 5-06-2008
It really saddens me to hear this, but perhaps the dissolution of SFH around a specific island would be for the best if the individual behind the actual payments for the island cannot be contacted.
Understandably, SupportForHealing is supposed to be a quiet area where folks can go without feeling the need to worry about their privacy, and I'm in no way disparaging the hard work that the SFH team has undertaken to get where it is now... but perhaps it would be easier to host the land some place where land rights are more managable and visitors know that their donations will go to the right place.
I ended up posting a comment to Untameable's blog that is still in moderation, but I'll repeat the main sentiment here: I'd be willing to donate a portion of my tier to see a concerted effort towards the kind of support the SFH provided if it would help.
I'm not sure if there's much more for me to say at this point except that I wish SFH, its team (present and former) and all of its members the best.
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KaraSpengler said on 7:12AM 5-06-2008
Has anyone else noticed their ads lately in the Metaverse Messenger? They advertise events with dates more than several months ago .... as if nobody has sent them an updated copy.
Too bad, I know quite a few people who regularly went to SFH.
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Dedric Mauriac said on 12:44PM 5-06-2008
It's hard to even get an ad placed in Metaverse Messenger. The staff never return any emails regarding advertisements.
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Nock Forager said on 12:31AM 5-09-2008
Related to this issue, Please check my New Feature proposal on JIRA. -> "When Estate Owner retired from SL by trouble, LL better ask co-Owner to take over the Estate." http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1043
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Untameable Wildcat said on 1:04PM 5-12-2008
With regards to the whole issue it isn't over yet.
TongRen Writer has managed to get hold of Zafu Diamond and is in talks with Linden Labs to take over the island. In addition, another support group who do have their own island already and are also in a position to be able to claim the nonprofitmaking discount to tier that Zafu was never able to secure area also interested in keeping things going.
There appears to be somewhat of a war where internet web domains are concerned, with Centering Place owner Amaya Summers getting hold of the supportforhealing.com administration login details, and sending out bulletins asking people not to use the supportforhealing.org site - the latest on that is when I checked this morning (May 12th) supportforhealing.com had either crashed or purposefully been disabled. What's happening there I have no idea.
But the most important thing - Support for Healing's PURPOSE - lives on. The group lives on, and I have been contacted by numerous people who are offering places to meet in order to keep groups going. Listening Ear has relocated, and there are lots of individuals with land offering places to meet. We're battered, and those of us who have been fighting have been temporarily knocked down by a number of issues - but we're not out of it yet.
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Specky Zaftig said on 2:11PM 5-26-2008
The issue regaring the reopene forums vanishing was a pure mistake when ordering the hosting package for the year and was solved within a few hrs by the host company.
The forums are now back online, donations that were made for the island were indeed as far as I am aware used to keep the islan open which without them it woul not have been and Zafu has indeed come to an aggrement with TongRen Writer to help keep the island available to all for the purpose it was put there..
Zafu has posted stating that whilst there were issues they were NOT the fault of Amaya Summers who has been nothing short of a life saver in helping get the "original" home of SFH at the .com forums back up and running , provided everyone with a safe place in the mean time and opened her island to all those who needed it.
SFH has worked alongside cp promoting the support an resources that are out there for the past couple of years and you will find a joint resource library on the CP island...
Whilst zafu was in a position to support both the forums and the island since SFH was formed in 2004 his ability to do so changed last year due to personal circumstances and whilst its been a very hard time for the team & members we know that zafu has had to cope with stepping back financially to his beloved baby and I for one wish to thank him for having brought everyone together in the first place rather than spending time pointing fingers at each other its now officially time to give back what we've been given.
Its easy to say "its not open" "its going down the pan" but its usually those who are quick to jump that are the least likely to support or use whats there - dont waste it guys!
Zafu said recently at the backup forum
"Dear friends,
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Amaya for the wonderful work she has done in supporting SFH through it's troubles and offering her hospitality here and on her island in Second Life. I would like to state for the record that the downtime and uncertainty surrounding SFH has been 100% caused by me and that no-one else has been anything but helpful in getting the situation resolved. I have handed over the reins of the website to Specky and the management team there as I have to concentrate on real life issues. I believe the hand over to the new server is nearly in place and things should quickly get back to normal.
SFH island in Second Life is being transferred to a new owner TongRen Writer in order to safeguard it's future. Unfortunately the hard work put in by Industria, Untameable and many others to secure donations has not been successful and has taken it's toll on people perosnally with key resignations. I have had assurance from Tong Ren that the island will continue to host support groups and be sympathetic to the aims of unconditional emotional support and healing.
If anyone wants to make criticisms of the recent situation please aim them at me. Everyone else has quite frankly been a star...
With Kindest Wishes,
Zafu "
Its time to get on with it and do what we are here for - peer to peer support - support & be supported! after all this isn't the NHS it comes from the heart!
Speck
SFH admin
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