The SL9B Fail

[Jahman Ochs]

I am not surprised by this:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Inworld/Help-Us-Celebrate-Second-Life-s-9th-Birthday/ba-p/1488731

I am, however, extremely disappointed that my worst expectations for how things were going to play out in Second Life, given Linden Labs' current leadership and the direction indicated by the "Linden SIMS" adventure escapades, have come to pass.

There will be no SL Birthday regions. There will be no coordinated celebration. There will be a destination guide tab for events happening all over the grid - just like there is EVERY FREAKIN' DAY OF THE YEAR. In other words, there will be nothing special about this - because Linden Labs has lost the perspective that we should be celebrating 9 years of creativity TOGETHER, with something UNIQUE.

Instead, we get to celebrate on OUR OWN LAND (wee!) with OUR OWN EVENTS (oh wait...), paid for by OUR OWN TIER (ugh, now I get it...) - that's right, just exactly what we do all the time, they're letting us do it to celebrate Second Life's start to the end of a decade.

Well, it's more than that. It's the end of an era. And I mourn its passing.

[Snickers Snook]

The era ended a few eras ago. Now we're just waiting for Godot.

[Polenth Yue]

That's very disappointing. Okay for people with clubs who organise parties... but not so great for people who enjoy building. I loved wandering the builds last year.

[Jahman Ochs]

Snickers: the observation is accurate; the metaphor is unfortunately hysterical.

[Polenth Yue]

I get the feeling from some comments I've seen elsewhere, the update didn't entirely sink in for some. Because the update avoids saying outright that the birthday has been cancelled, and tries to spin cancelling it as a good thing, some took that to mean the big event will still be happening with the destination guide as an extra.

This is like telling someone they can buy themselves a loaf of bread for their birthday, instead of you giving them a cake, because bread is healthy and won't rot their teeth. So really, it's better for them to buy bread.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

Oh well, end of an era. I used to enjoy playing that the annual SLB festivals.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

It is indeed very dissappointing that the annual birthday event appears to have been cancelled.:smileysad:

What is even worse is that they don't actually say that it is - and try to spin it as something positive.  This shows an apparent indifference and arrogance towards SL's own customers.

[Jahman Ochs]

@Polenth - As I tried to say in a convoluted way: they are having us celebrate on OUR dime. No expense on their part. How many performers are going to feel ok about doing birthday shows for free (as they've done in the past at the SLB venues) to drive these birthday events? Especially when the traffic will be diluted because of all the simulataneous activity? And we're doing it on land that WE pay for.

No challenge to get this done - no time limits, no schedules, no prim limits, and hell, this time the Adult and gaming will have free rein to draw all the attention they can, eh? Or will there be rules that you can't have SL9B events on Adult sims? And so much for not being about advertising - are the SL9B staff (is there even such a thing?) going to be running around to the event sites enforcing some sort of standards? Or can a gaming sim full of ad boards (or a whoring sim, for that matter) set up an SL9B event and then simply point people at their money-generating stuff (NO DEVIL here! ESCORTS there! Have a happy birthday!)?

Seriously, the more I think about it, the more enraged I become.

[Knowl Paine]

I was really looking forward to building at the Birthday Regions, I would have requested a plot.

I am saddened by some of the truths here.

I can't dwell on it, I have other things to do.

I created a thread asking about a Photo idea I was thinking about. It has turned into something much larger than I expected. 

When I started the thread, I had plenty of things I thought LL should do.

With the help of the wisdom of Group members, we are discovering that we need very little help from LL. As I believe that the Group has a need, the means appear.

 

My first love and primary skill in SL is Building.

It's not easy to have 10 people work on one build, when all the people know how to do everything. I would imagine that if they got together, they could build anything, anywhere.

I know of a Region manager with 50 Regions last time I looked. Being listed in an event could help that person help you.

This is worse than when the ibm sandboxes were closed, but I believe there are solutions.

The Veteran SLB people need to step up, organize, discover methods to secure the resources they need.

Please take a look at the thread I created. :matte-motes-grin:

 

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Group-Photo-idea/td-p/1480195

 

Very busy with the photo project, but I would not decline a part in a Build project.

 

[Jahman Ochs]

Sorry, Knowl - I know you mean well, although I take umbrage with your attempt to (as Linden Labs did) spin this somehow in a positive light. I'm glad your project can proceed without Linden Labs support, since it has been observed many places (including here) that Linden Labs is far more interested in pursuing other projects than keeping their commitment to Second Life residents.

The fact that you can proceed without them for your activity is irrelevant to this thread. If you had read the content, you would see that.

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

My feelings are slightly mixed. The way that SL servers cope with the number of Avatars present had made me wary of dumping everything on one small set of regions. And that is when I am on a foreign time-zone--I can tour the builds at quieter times of day.

But everything was in one small area. I could see things without teleports. There was that opportunity for serendipity as I walked past the different builds.

Reading the announcement, I have seen sheep with less wooliness. 

[Jahman Ochs]

Funny you should bring that up, Wolf, because that's another aspect of this that I hadn't even gotten around to considering: SLB was an annual test of the grid, because it was pretty much unprecidented on an annual basis for judging how well Linden Labs was doing at improving high-load performance. The abandonment of such is yet another example of how the loss of the organized, consolidated celebration is a serious fail on the part of LL.

[Knowl Paine]

I'm sorry you feel that way.

A thread that was popular here at the Forum asked the question about "being sorry", or saying it to another person. What does it mean.

For many people it is nothing more that reactive dismissive coddling. In 10-15 minutes, the person expressing sorrow will be off minding their own quest for personal satisfaction, completely forgetting about whatever they just heard.

I'm not spinning anything. The Photo Project is moving forward.

I'm quite surprised that you could read 250 comments so quickly in the Link I provided. I will consider that your reading skills are vastly superior to mine, and I will accept your advice to review this thread a second time. You may do the same for the data I have provided.

What form of discussion would be relevant.

If it's just a LL bash fest, I will go. It is not a productive use of energies.

I do want to help.

 

[Qie Niangao]

---

Knowl Paine wrote:

I'm quite surprised that you could read 250 comments so quickly in the Link I provided.

---

I was going to ask if you could possibly summarize what methods were uncovered in that thread which might apply here, just to avoid reading 27 pages of posts.  I mean, if you decide to come back to this thread.

Because I, too, am of two minds about this.  

On the one hand, as I think about it, I agree that this is a very bad signal for the Lab to be sending right now.  I mean, I understand and generally support the current emphasis on community independence (see, for example, the Adult Hub sims), but the birthday party is quite a different thing, for a whole bunch of reasons that will probably emerge in this thread.  (One that I haven't seen mentioned as I type this: The sharing of a common area for the building of the party sims was a huge part of the celebration -- for many of us, more than the party itself. It was about the journey, not the destination.)

On the other hand... there are things that we can do to mitigate the impact of this change on resident groups. I'm just worried, from responses here, that any attempt to make it any less disastrous will be seen as selling out. Is there any reason to think otherwise?

[Knowl Paine]

Teamwork

 

Edit: The section where I was quoted is a reply to reply. My first comment in this thread should be considered when reviewing my second comment.

[Medhue Simoni]

I'm somewhat indifferent about all this.

 

Last year, I decided to get a plot at the SL8B, to promote my new combat system. We basically had to redo the whole system, just for the event. We did get quite a few visitors, but how much it helped with sales was questionable.The only reason I decided to be at the SL8B was to see if having a plot there improved sales for the week, as every year I'd lose sales during the SL birthday. Overall, I'd say it was always a terrible idea for LL to host the event. It pulled people away from the actual people that pay for SL. Plus, I always thought it was dumb to not allow merchants to sell items at the event. Merchants are what made SL and to not let them do their thing is downright dumb. It's not like we aren't going to give away free items if we also sell items.

To me, the downside is all the people that you won't meet this year, and that there won't be any scheduled Linden events, like the speeches and announcements. Maybe there is something for this but I don't see that implied anywhere. For godsakes, it is tough to find out about anything the Lindens are doing, and now without SL9B, we'll get even less.

 

[Jahman Ochs]

---

Qie Niangao wrote:

(One that I haven't seen mentioned as I type this: The sharing of a common area for the

building

of the party sims was a huge part of the celebration -- for many of us, more than the party itself. It was about the journey, not the destination.)

---

Qie, that was in fact the first thing I thought when I read the blog note, and immediately went in-world to seek clarification from anyone that might be on the group chat. I could not have said it better myself, and the loss of that journey is the greatest of all - but it's still only for a fraction of the resident population.

I think the worst aspect of this is the two-faced "this is all about you" garbage they're trying to hoist. Actually, it's all about them copping out.

[Jahman Ochs]

Actually, Knowl, I didn't read any of the posts beyond your first one; I extrapolated the rest from your post here, which explained how you realized that you didn't need Linden help to accomplish your goal. It was at that point that I concluded the context was completely different, and that it was irrelevant to the issue at hand here.

I am quite content to have this be a thread of criticism, rather than of trying to figure out some bright side to this. If you want to start a thread for the latter, more power to you. Frankly, I don't believe there is one.

[Argus Collingwood]

Re-posting:

 

This is sad. All the Birthday sims with awesome builds, live music and special events not happening? This is more than sad, this is LR/LL cloistering themselves in a Sterile Corporate Tower and further undermining any feeling of shared Community Spirit. It is becoming "Your World, Your Imagination,: Our Billing, Our Platform." sigh

[Rin Tae]

Fail indeed ....

back when I have seen the first birthday celebration in 2007 (or 08, I am not sure which the first was that I have visited) it was a great build .. a marked way to walk through and see various builds .. sims that have not been clustered together with every little bit of them filled up by all sorts of exhibitions (with sadly very different levels of quality) .. it had room, it was nice, it was interesting.

Later it all got worse with I think the low point having been at the 2010 celebration that really was an example for how to not care this from the side of the lab. The 2011 celebration I had in a slightly better memory then the previous one but it again was just a few sims placed by LL and then people puting what they liekd on it. I don't think that is the way on how to celebrate the main product of a company.

And now I guess it wont be even this. On one side I am happy about it, since it was in the danger of being worse then in the previous years .. but now .. I guess there is no better way of showing their lack of care and interest in their own product as well as into the community using it then to refuse to even put out a sandbox for them to build on and keep it up for a week or so.

Was it too much work?

Or has LL decided that since people wont be happy about it then they just shrug it off and let people be unhappy since for them there is no difference if people are unhappy about a mismanaged celebration or unhappy about the lack of celebration?

They just stay unhappy

And who needs happy customers anyway?

Or to change the question a bit ...

Who needs customers?

I guess not LL

 

*insert angry words of choice here*

[Deej Kasshiki]

Just another indication of how little LL really cares about its customers. They've dealt us a double dose of 'screw you' here; they're washing their hands of yet another chance at community building and customer engagement by bailing on organizing the event and insulting our collective intelligence by trying to spin their abandonment as somehow positive. Shame on them.

If the Lab doesn't have the resources, or simply doesn't want to reallocate limited resources for SL9B, then why not just level with us? I'm getting damned tired of them spitting on me and trying to convince me that it's raining.

[Polenth Yue]

---

Knowl Paine wrote:

What form of discussion would be relevant.

If it's just a LL bash fest, I will go. It is not a productive use of energies.

I do want to help.

 

---

This thread isn't because we're incapable of working as a team or making our own fun. We spend most of the year organising our own things, building our own things and working in teams with our own communities/friends. And that's great, but the big events offer something else. It's a chance for people to get together with the wider community, including those who don't check out the forums.

There is still the RFL stuff this year, which has the big event feel... but I know some people get burned out by that, due to the fundraising pressure and how long it goes on for. The birthday offered an independent once-off event, without that level of pressure.

You can't fix this by hosting a build contest at your sim or running a big party. They're all nice things to be organising to be sure, but they won't change the situation. The community provided the volunteers for the birthday, so volunteers we have in abundance... but without the Linden support for sims and publicity, it'll always end up as you and some friends. Most of the people who'd take part in the birthday are people you'll never meet in SL under other circumstances.

[Rusalka Writer]

I was already working up ideas for a cool mesh build. How discouraging.

[Hunter Fischer]

What a huge opportunity for one of the Real Estate Services in Second Life to step up. A public relations dream to me.

[Jahman Ochs]

Not sure how you mean, Hunter. Given that there are parcels all over the grid for sale for L$1/sqm since Linden Labs in their infinite wisdom decided to dump abandoned land directly onto the market rather than go through the auction process that had served relatively well for so long, I don't see how this changes anything.