What idiot in Linden announced SL is closing down?

[Chic Aeon]

From the VERY top of the CURRENT article on the Firestorm blog -- from the transcript of the Q and A of a couple of days ago (you CAN watch it of course):

 

QUESTION: ”Does Linden Lab have plans, either near or far, to shut down Second Life…”
ANSWER: ”No. Absolutely not… ” – Pete Linden

 

Anyone who makes life changing decisions without doing RESEARCH is beyond help.

 

GOT IT?????????????????????????????????????????????

[Tari Landar]

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johnboy Snoodle wrote:

Thats strange, I sign in every day and have not seen one single comment regarding it and as I am not a mind reader either then maybe it was displayed in the wrong places? Think, if I have not seen anything then a good many others have not seen anything either and that's where rumors start and grow. 

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Its been the message of the day on the login screen since the day the "news" was broken. 

[Phil Deakins]

What idiot in the SL usership asked a question like the title of this thread?

 

Psst. Nobody announced that SL is closing down 

[Ren Toxx]

One thing I had been noticing is that the number, rate and even stridency of such “ZOMFG SL IS FALLING ON OUR HEADS!!!!” threads had actually slackened in these last days, quite likely after all the external, high-profile news web / blog articles about SL2, plus Oz & Peter Linden's “Future of SL” hosted conference.

And then in a single day, bam!, two such threads, both of the most hysterical variety. Anyone care to guess why? Mere coincidence? Fourth of July, some people with too much time on their hands? Children? Alcohol?

[irihapeti]

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Ren Toxx wrote:

And then in a single day, bam!, two such threads, both of the most hysterical variety. 

Anyone care to guess why? Mere coincidence? Fourth of July, some people with too much time on their hands? Children? Alcohol?

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parrots

[Derek Torvalar]

"If all users move rather quickly from SL to our next gen then I assume things went very well. If few are, then I think we'd have more work to do and SL will keep on tickin until only the new one makes sense to operate..."

Ebbe Linden ‎06-23-2014 09:15 PM

https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Linden-Lab-is-building-a-NEW-virtual-world/td-p/2753476/page/20

Everything said after this point on the 23rd has been spin. While there may be no "immediate plans", the bottom line is that Ebbe has said that at some point the old one will go.

Question answered.

[Jenny Siddeley]

I don't think anyone believes SL is going to last forever, it's pretty obvious that on the long term SL2 is going to progressively replace SL but that's going to take years after SL2 initial release.

Then SL will be closed once the big majority of people and businesses has moved to SL2 and there's no point keeping it up. Which then shouldn't much of a problem.

I don't think SL was going to last forever regardless of LL making a new gen SL anyway, the real deciders are the people, not LL. If everyone gets bored or decides to move somewhere else, then SL will be closed, but before that, SL closing is very unlikely.

As for now, we still got years to spend and enjoy in SL, we still got years to make our purchases worthwile, to have our newly created products being enjoyed by others, etc... absolutely no reason to panick and stop everything. At one point it will obviously slow down and stop but it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Like someone else said, there's no point stopping to live just because we know we're going to die one day.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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[Stamango]

My impression from listening to the discussion was this:

Many questions being asked and even suggestions as to which way LL's might go with SL. Most questions answered in a very honest way, noting the problems and issues that still plague SL.

THEN...

The mention that a large emphasis has been placed on a "new" platform by LL and its crew. So improvements to SL was noted as being needed, but then the new platform gets mentioned as a way of making a positive impression to us.

Ok, the following is just my opinion. Yours may be different.

It backfired.

It was a bad management/marketing/common sense decision to mention the new platform during the discussion of old platform, giving me the impression that the effort being put into the new platform explains the lack of progress on the improvements being put into the old platform. The rumours have run full circle, the backlash will be damaging. This company gets managed by its mistakes. It is therefore unable to manage its business.

So my decision after this was that I no longer have confidence in SL, and have spent way too much money there already. I will always maintain a presence in SL. If all our items are transferrable to the new platform, thats great. I will be in the beta of the new plat. But for now I will focus on building a life in a cheaper realm, Inworldz (or a better one if I can find it). The folks there are more mature in general and I like to build anyway. A quarter sim there has 11500k prims! My girlfriend likes both worlds, so I am all set.

But thats just me. Good luck to you.

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

You are mistaken.

1. It didn't backfire because, from what I read, most people are looking forward to the new platform.

2. LL was always slow to do things with SL, so nothing has changed in that respect. It seems that the SL team is smaller than before but most people don't miond because most people are looking forward to the new one.

3. Inworldz is an amatuer thing compared with SL/LL. It really is. They can't even create their own system. There are no advantages there because it will never take off.

4. If Inworldz had the success that SL has, then you'd see a very different nature of the management

5. LL manages its business very well indeed. What it does may not suit you personally, but you are just one among many.

All in all, you are mistaken all round, but you what you do is entirely up to you, of course. Good luck.

[Conifer Dada]

There have always been reports that Second life was about to close down.  I Googled and found a report from April 1st 2011 that SL was going to close down for 6 months.

i don't see any evidence that SL is going to close down in the near future, although probably it will one day, when almost everyone has migrated to LL's new world or maybe another one that hasn't been invented yet.

[Masami Kuramoto]

Linden Lab may soon find out how difficult it is to make people migrate to an empty world while the old and familiar one with all its content is still around -- even more so if the new world imposes stricter limits on mesh detail etc. to support mobile devices. People dislike re-learning, scaling down, giving things up and starting from scratch, even if the new platform comes with some improvements and much lower prices. Consider how hard it was to make people switch to Viewer 2. Consider how few gave up their SL inventories in exchange for abundant OpenSim land.

It will be interesting to see what Linden Lab will do when they hit that wall with SL 2.0.

[Innula Zenovka]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

Linden Lab may soon find out how difficult it is to make people migrate to an empty world while the old and familiar one with all its content is still around -- even more so if the new world imposes stricter limits on mesh detail etc. to support mobile devices. People dislike re-learning, scaling down, giving things up and starting from scratch, even if the new platform comes with some improvements and much lower prices. Consider how hard it was to make people switch to Viewer 2. Consider how few gave up their SL inventories in exchange for abundant OpenSim land.

It will be interesting to see what Linden Lab will do when they hit that wall with SL 2.0.

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I think that what may well happen, at least initially, is that creators will use SL 2 for creating experiences.   If, for example, as may well be the case, sim crossings are easier to negotiate in SL 2 and it becomes possible more easily to script better and more versatile vehicles, I can see people staying on SL1 for most things but going to SL 2 to fly, sail or drive.   That way, I wouldn't need to abandon my old inventory.   I'd simply need to buy my new vehicle in SL 2 and some clothes to go with it, and split my time between SL 1 and SL 2

That would fit in particularly well with LL's apparent intention to make less from land and more from sales -- the old model of an RP region supported by income from RP-related shops would be a lot easier to make work than it's been for the last few years.

[Perrie Juran]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

Linden Lab may soon find out how difficult it is to make people migrate to an empty world while the old and familiar one with all its content is still around -- even more so if the new world imposes stricter limits on mesh detail etc. to support mobile devices. People dislike re-learning, scaling down, giving things up and starting from scratch, even if the new platform comes with some improvements and much lower prices. Consider how hard it was to make people switch to Viewer 2. Consider how few gave up their SL inventories in exchange for abundant OpenSim land.

It will be interesting to see what Linden Lab will do when they hit that wall with SL 2.0.

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Linden Lab can do a lot to offer content right out of the starting gate that Open SIM could not do when it went "live."

They could expand on a temporary (or even on a permanent basis) the number of SIMs dedicated to the Linden Endowment For The Arts. 

There are SIMs that they did actually buy such as Svarga that they might be able to convert to the new formats and set in the New World.  (I do hope for historical purposes they recreate the Gov's Mansion).

They could actually buy some halfway decent content from creators to give us some at least halfway decent starter AVAs.

What about the texture library that they own?

You are right, there will be less content when the New World goes live but how much content was there the day Steller Sunshine first logged in and built her Cabin and the Beanstalk?

 

[Phil Deakins]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

Linden Lab may soon find out how difficult it is to make people migrate to an empty world while the old and familiar one with all its content is still around -- even more so if the new world imposes stricter limits on mesh detail etc. to support mobile devices. People dislike re-learning, scaling down, giving things up and starting from scratch, even if the new platform comes with some improvements and much lower prices. Consider how hard it was to make people switch to Viewer 2.

Consider how few gave up their SL inventories in exchange for abundant OpenSim land

.

It will be interesting to see what Linden Lab will do when they hit that wall with SL 2.0.

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Yeah, there were a few - just a few.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I think that what may well happen, at least initially, is that creators will use SL 2 for creating experiences.   If, for example, as may well be the case, sim crossings are easier to negotiate in SL 2 and it becomes possible more easily to script better and more versatile vehicles, I can see people staying on SL1 for most things but going to SL 2 to fly, sail or drive.   That way, I wouldn't need to abandon my old inventory.   I'd simply need to buy my new vehicle in SL 2 and some clothes to go with it, and split my time between SL 1 and SL 2

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People have split their time in similar ways between SL and Blue Mars, SL and Cloud Party, or SL and OpenSim. I'm not aware of anyone canceling their SL account in favor of an alternative. If this is how people will use SL 2.0, it will be a disaster for LL because the company will end up operating and maintaining two expensive platforms competing for the same customer hour and dollar.

[Happy Toshi]

hmmm 250 a month thousands of sims... plus alot are preimum members and the top classfied ads that are thousand of dollars a week... Lets weight this down closing down or alot of money... Moneyyy or closing downnnn.... closing downnnnnn and no moneyyyy.... This is so tough.... HIring someone to take over like last yearrrrr and keep the moneyyyyy .... Hmmm I dunno im confused...  YOU SHOULD BE TOO... Cause damn, this is a toughie right here... 0.0

[Innula Zenovka]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

I think that what may well happen, at least initially, is that creators will use SL 2 for creating experiences.   If, for example, as may well be the case, sim crossings are easier to negotiate in SL 2 and it becomes possible more easily to script better and more versatile vehicles, I can see people staying on SL1 for most things but going to SL 2 to fly, sail or drive.   That way, I wouldn't need to abandon my old inventory.   I'd simply need to buy my new vehicle in SL 2 and some clothes to go with it, and split my time between SL 1 and SL 2

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People have split their time in similar ways between SL and Blue Mars, SL and Cloud Party, or SL and OpenSim. I'm not aware of anyone canceling their SL account in favor of an alternative. If this is how people will use SL 2.0, it will be a disaster for LL because the company will end up operating and maintaining two expensive platforms competing for the same customer hour and dollar.

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Nothing I've seen, though, suggests to me that LL anticipate a swift and sudden switch from SL1 to SL2.    If that were to happen, I think they'd regard it as a very great (though pleasant) surprise.   I can't see how, on any sober estimation, many people are going to switch immediately from SL1 to SL2.   However, I can see plenty of people going from SL1 to SL2 to check out what's there, and maybe finding some fun regions where they can do stuff they can't do in SL1.    

All things being equal, my business partner and I are certainly planning to be there to meet them, ready to sell them both SL2 equivalents of scripted furniture and animations that can't be ported over and things that we can make in SL2 that we couldn't make in SL1.    That's because SL2 is going to have what Cloud Party, Blue Mars and Open Sim never had -- a functional and very liquid economy right from the word go.   Since L$ accounts will be accessible from both grids,  people are going to have far more willing to drop a few hundred L$ on their first and second visits than they were anywhere else, and having done that, they'll have more of a reason to return for more visits, and maybe bring some friends.    

That's the way I see it developing, anyway. 

[Phil Deakins]

We can only imagine at this stage, but I imagine that, unless there is some barrier, such as no free accounts, in SL2, people will flock over to look at it en masse, find that it's way better than SL, and make it their main place. They'll be frequent visitors to SL while some of their favourite places/people remain here, but, on the whole, SL2 will become their 'home' platform. That's the way I imagine it happening, and quite quickly.

I also imagine that all the serious SL businesses will set up over there, as you plan to do, believing, as I do, that the market (populatioon) will be allbut guaranteed.

In other words, I don't think it will be very long before SL is the minor platform of the two. That, as I said, assumes there is no barrier to everyone joining.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

SL2 is going to have what Cloud Party, Blue Mars and Open Sim never had -- a functional and very liquid economy right from the word go.   Since L$ accounts will be accessible from both grids,  people are going to have far more willing to drop a few hundred L$ on their first and second visits than they were anywhere else, and having done that, they'll have more of a reason to return for more visits, and maybe bring some friends.    

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Yes, but will they spend more in total? I don't think so.

A considerable part of SL's current population has no payment info on file. The idea that SL 2 will turn freeloaders into paying customers or even attract large numbers of new customers with no prior SL experience is quite far fetched in my opinion.

I think it is more likely that SL 2 will be designed to provide an experience similar to SL 1 but at much lower operational cost for LL, e.g. by launching simulators on demand from cold storage rather than having lots of empty regions burn CPU cycles all the time.

However, no such cost reduction through SL 2 will materialize as long as the Lab has to keep SL 1 running anyway. Developing SL 2 makes no sense unless the goal is to get rid of SL 1.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

What idiot believes rumours without checking facts?

SL is not going anywhere for several years even if LL's  secret goal is to shut it down asap.  It will be a minimum if two years before the new grid is ready for prime time.  Then it will be empty and take another year or so to have enough content to satisfy the masses.  Even then people won't migrate immediately.  I figure sl will be alive and kicking for six years at least, possibly longer.

 

[Perrie Juran]

[kiramanell]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

SL2 is going to have what Cloud Party, Blue Mars and Open Sim never had -- a functional and very liquid economy right from the word go.   Since L$ accounts will be accessible from both grids,  people are going to have far more willing to drop a few hundred L$ on their first and second visits than they were anywhere else, and having done that, they'll have more of a reason to return for more visits, and maybe bring some friends.    

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Yes, but will they spend more in total? I don't think so.

A considerable part of SL's current population has no payment info on file. The idea that SL 2 will turn freeloaders into paying customers or even attract large numbers of new customers with no prior SL experience is quite far fetched in my opinion.

I think it is more likely that SL 2 will be designed to provide an experience similar to SL 1 but at much lower operational cost for LL, e.g. by launching simulators on demand from cold storage rather than having lots of empty regions burn CPU cycles all the time.

However, no such cost reduction through SL 2 will materialize as long as the Lab has to keep SL 1 running anyway. Developing SL 2 makes no sense unless the goal is to get rid of SL 1.

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(from the FS site)

 

QUESTION: ”Does Linden Lab have plans, either near or far, to shut down Second Life…”

ANSWER: ”No. Absolutely not… ” – Pete Linden

 

I'm sure they don't. None of which detracts anything from Ebbe's original comment, though, that they may decide, *later*, to shut down SL1, should it no longer prove profitable alongside SL2. It's a bit of semantics, really (because technically they wouldn't have made the decision now, but somewhere down the road).

In other words, we still know nothing more. Which isn't all that unfair per se, btw: no company will (or even can) ever give a 100% assurance of continued operation.

[Innula Zenovka]

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Masami Kuramoto wrote:

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

SL2 is going to have what Cloud Party, Blue Mars and Open Sim never had -- a functional and very liquid economy right from the word go.   Since L$ accounts will be accessible from both grids,  people are going to have far more willing to drop a few hundred L$ on their first and second visits than they were anywhere else, and having done that, they'll have more of a reason to return for more visits, and maybe bring some friends.    

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Yes, but will they spend more in total? I don't think so.

A considerable part of SL's current population has no payment info on file. The idea that SL 2 will turn freeloaders into paying customers or even attract large numbers of new customers with no prior SL experience is quite far fetched in my opinion.

I think it is more likely that SL 2 will be designed to provide an experience similar to SL 1 but at much lower operational cost for LL, e.g. by launching simulators on demand from cold storage rather than having lots of empty regions burn CPU cycles all the time.

However, no such cost reduction through SL 2 will materialize as long as the Lab has to keep SL 1 running anyway. Developing SL 2 makes no sense unless the goal is to get rid of SL 1.

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 I think a better metric than the proportion of the current population that has no payment info on file would be the proportion of the active population that's economically active in SL (obeviously the vast majority of SL accounts will be NPIOF because most people who register don't stay longer than one or two log-ins).     I don't know what that is, but I can't see many people being active in SL for very long without somehow getting and spending a bit of money.

I'm not sure, either, that I would talk about the goal being to get rid of SL 1.   I am sure the expectation is that, sooner or later, SL1 will have to close, with or without SL2.    That's because there's a limit to how much it can be upgraded to take advantage of new developments in technology.    Better to start with a more future-proof replacement now, I guess, than risk leaving things too long and being overtaken by events.

Anyway, time will tell.   All I was saying is that I'm expecting the migration from SL1 to SL2 to be a slow affair.  I don't see that many people who're currently active in SL2 suddenly abandoning SL1 for SL2.   Rather, I see people gradually spending more and more time there.

[Dillon Levenque]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Best cartoon ever.