About a dozen people have asked me for CULT shirts in Second Life. I actually stopped someone doing it themselves as it would have been a copyright violation for them to do it without permission. It is important that I protect that IP and make sure it isn't done unless it is done right.

As part of exploring Second Life, I've learned to create a t-shirt for myself that is fairly convincing. It looks just like one I wear all the time around here. That was the point. It is, in fact, more like the actual shirt than you might think, because I created the virtual one using Adobe Illustrator using the very same vector images that were sent to the shirt company to make the real world one. The artwork is in fact the exact same artwork.

That means I'm ready to -- if I can be convinced of the need and desire -- put the CULT shirts from the last few years into Second Life. I have on hand the vector artwork from the shirts for "CULT SHIRT ON HUMAN", "Zen and the Art of Collaboration", "CULT Man Group", and now "We Are CULT" -- the last four years of shirts.

Each will take me about half an hour to create, but distribution is another matter. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to want to do it right. That means setting up a little bit of property (the minimal size) with a display shelf where you can help yourself.

Here's the plan -- which will only go forward if enough people want it.

1. There will be a "Lotus CULT" group created.

2. There will be each of the four years of CULT shirts in the system, in some cases in two colors (as were the originals)

3. There will be a "CULT" lounge -- some benches and such in a meeting area. -- my goal is to also setup a relay object in the center of the area, so that in-sim character chat can be tied to a real world chat area of some kind. Looking at the scripting language it looks fairly easy to do. Maybe I can talk one of the Sametime gurus into working with me to make a real world sametime link. In terms of design, I think the ideal is like the "meeting room" open air platforms high above the virtual lotusphere. There are three of these, well separated, and I think they are the ideal kind of meeting place for now. I'd be looking to do something similar if much less pretty.

4. Access to shirts & lounge will go with CULT membership

5. There will be a membership cost of something like 50 cents in real world (currently about 50 Linden Dollars) to cover the cost of having the land and stuff in the sim.

So, do you really want it? Not just for free, but do you want it if it means making a very small financial commitment? More important than the fifty cents, this act of paying for it implies a commitment to the site that I'm frankly not convinced many people will find worthwhile. Show me I'm wrong by telling me here you think you'd do it.