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Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived


Q Linden

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Today we launched Viewer 2.5, now out of Beta. The most significant update is a new, web-based profile system, which allows profiles to be viewed and edited both on the web and in the Viewer. For example, here's mine. Please note this is just a starting point for the web-based profiles; we’ll be doing a lot of work to refine the usability and make them richer over time.

In response to your feedback from the early beta versions of Viewer 2.5, we've added some privacy settings that will allow you to control just how public your profile is. Once you’ve logged in, click on “Privacy Settings” in the upper right corner of your profile. Group settings set in the Viewer will be overridden by these group privacy settings.

  • "Everyone" means that the information is available to the whole Internet and can be picked up by search engines.
  • "Second Life" means that the information is available to all Second Life Residents who are logged into the website or inworld. This is the default for all existing Residents using Viewer 2.5.
  • "Friends" means that only your Second Life friends can see the information on the web and inworld.

This is why we have a beta process--to address concerns and improve your user experience. We will continue to iterate as we get more feedback. Thank you for all your help and comments. Please attend the Viewer 2 User Group meetings if you would like to share your thoughts and feedback directly with me and the Snowstorm team.

Viewer 2.5 also has some other new features. The one I like best is that you can now have your Favorite landmarks also appear on the login screen, so that you can log directly into your favorite locations. Torley made a video about this, so check it out! We've also improved some texturing performance and fixed another batch of bugs. Watching the internal data, we've already seen a noticeable improvement in stability and performance--on par with Viewer 1.23.

Download Viewer 2.5, try it out, and keep the feedback coming! And, if you Twitter, please use the hashtag #slviewer2.

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I don't see the point of the web profile. It seems completely useless

 

The point is, you can be searched on the web, not just inside SL. For networking, it's a huge plus.

I would like to think there's more to it than that, such as having functionality via the profile to contact people inworld. Networking can be achieved fine within SL.

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Firestorm (in its vast baby newness) is MILES ahead of 2.5.  I can only imagine how uberawsomesauce Firestorm will be once its ready for release!!  I can't wait for it!!

Ditto for Kirstens viewer.  I have been using that version of the "new" viewer since it came out, knowing full well that we were all going to have to switch at some point.  Figured I may as well get used to it.

Not trying to advertise here, because I could care less what viewer someone uses, but Kirstens blows the SL veiwer right out of the water, and has for months and months and months.

Hell, SL still hasn't fixed the oversized camera and view controls that seem to have been made for the blind.  That was redone in Kirstens on one of the very first builds (along with many other added features and functions).

What do we get with SL?  Web based profiles that are intrusive and don't work very well (which I had access to about a month ago in Kirstens Viewer), along with "log in to favorites" that has yet to work for me once.  Wonderful.

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something more?

My suspicion is that Group messaging and Private Messaging are going to be moved to the web.  Making a web-based group chat is child's play -- hundreds of them are out in the field today.  Rather than continue to beat on making one work inworld (and listen to everyone complain about all the open windows blocking the view) they will sometime in the spring move the Messaging system over to a browser based system.

The pluses for this is that small screens and laptops get the multiple window solution I've long been calling for.  And having a friends list and profiles on the webpage makes it easy to implement and use.  The negatives are:  How do you handle having multiple chat windows open at once, and how do you IM someone you search for inworld?  Not to mention how do I know I have an IM waiting -- will the tab light up or something?

I sense a big change in communications is on the horizon.  If they use tabs and make the tabs change color when there's something to read, it'll be much like 1.23's Communicate window.  But doing something like this AND maintaining compatibility with non2.6 current viewers?  That will be a feat indeed.

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A new chat system is on the way, and really, all this effort just to display our profiles on the web would be silly, other features have to be part of it, so I'd imagine you're on the right lines.

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With Facebook cookies are embedded in the SL web profile pages. So in theory,  if person is logged in FB and SL at the same time, then FB can collect person's SL profile usage whenever the he  visits SL web profile pages and keep tracks of it. Something is not right about this...FB is out of control.

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OK, Q. What's going on. Now, when I disable 'I want my profile to be available on the web.' no-one can see my profile. It does not show on the web, regardless if you are a logged in SL user or not (which is how it should be), and it does not show in world (which it should)! Not even my friends can see my profile when I disable 'I want my profile to be available on the web.' The preference 'Show me in search results' have no impact on this. This surely is a mistake. It is for sure not how any of the residents wanted this to be. The setting should let the profile be visible in the viewer, but not in a web browser outside of the viewer!

- Luc -

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Seems like Viewer 2.5 Web Profiles is riddled with errors and problems. Just came online to post what you have just pointed out - unchecking" I want my profile to be viewed on the Web" makes the profile not viewable in world using Viewer 2.5.

Also, disabling cookies and Javascripts means you cannot view ANY profiles in-world.

Seems like Mac users with Safari cannot even uncheck "I want my profile to be viewer on the Web"!

In the process of checking the above, I noticed that despite my preference settings stipulating that I want to download and instal updates MANUALLY, SL attempts to instal Viewer 2.5 automatically the second time one opens Viewer 2.4. No wonder several people have been caught by surprise and found themselves in Viewer 2.5 without realizing it!!!!

If the people of Egypt could get rid of Murbarak, we the users of SL can rise up and force Linden Labs to roll-back Viewer 2.5 to the prior version. ENOUGH IT ENOUGH!

Avis of Second Life uniite. Let the chant begin....

....OUT WITH VIEWER 2.5 - IN WITH A COMPLETE OVERHALL OF THE VIEWER UI.

....GIVE ALL AVIS THEIR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS - A SECOND LIFE EXPERIENCE WE CAN ONCE AGAIN ENJOY UNSHACKLED FROM ALL THE USELESS GARBAGE THAT LL IS ATTEMPTING TO FOIST UPON US!

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When lag is so bad you can hardly move around, improvements like this, which no one really wants are completely irrelevant. Abuse reports and support tickets are as good as ignored, building is difficult because of prims jumping back. So many problems just get worse all the time.

LL why do you waste your time and our money tarting up a platform that barely works. Put your resources into making the basic functionality good first.

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Webprofiles are slow. Maybe it would be an idea to show a summary in the sidebar and the extended version in the web. The other long expected bug fix is the update of the Linden Dollar Display. It is not very intuitive when I need to click it to refresh after I e.g. sold some money. I hope that is not the final solution. The other bug fix that I was waiting for is the "???" that is showing instead of display names often. On first sight it seems to be fixed, but I had to turn the display names off again anyway, because it is a pain loading the member list of my group, which takes minutes with display names enabled (10.000 members), including serveral black sceens. You have done better, Lindens. Maybe it is time to hire some good developers after all the layoffs.

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Ok, I didn't read all those 158 comments so far, but I still have a little issue...

First, the plus (I write this so the folks from the Lab get a positive feedback once in a while...)

My concerns about "My Notices" turned out to be addressed. I only didn't see my notices because I wasn't logged in here in this blog. Ehm... do I have to log in to the blog every time I want to check my notices? Well, I suppose to be logged with viewer 2 will override this procedure. Since I'm using Phoenix and don't intend to use viewer 2, unless I'm forced to use it (a case that might cause me to cancel my premium account , cash out and say goodbye to SL once and for all), I'd say the wrong perception of this issue was my fault.

Now to the minus....

I still need a privacy setting that hides my groups to EVERYBODY, even friends!

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I suggest that we email the CEO with our concerns directly.  Conveniently enough, he elected to share his profile with us via Second Life on the web!  If you search rodvik linden, you'll find his profile on the web and then keep clicking and you'll find his gmail address.

Linden Labs, you are going down a slippery slope.  With your half-ass testing and horrible coordination if the Viewer 2 project, surely there will be privacy lawsuits in the near future.  Cookies for facebook??  Seriously??????  OMG!

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Re:

I still need a privacy setting that hides my groups to EVERYBODY, even friends!

 

It has always been possible to hide any of your groups from showing in your profile - go to the infor panel for each group.

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"Friends" means that only your Second Life friends can see the information on the web and inworld."

Maybe I don't quite understand this one - does it mean if someone chooses this setting it will be impossible to search for them at all? How would I be able to contact a customer who had sent me a notecard (or whose IMs don't show in the IM panel because the were capped) this way? How would I be able to redeliver items due to a failed delivery?

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@clever

In your case you could Edit the notecard and see who the owner is.  Double clicking that should bring up that person's profile and IM button.

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ECK! Thats what I mean!

Former profiles you saw immediately. Web based profiles are SLOW.

 

I suppose if you look at profiles all day, 4 seconds could add up. I look at maybe a few profiles a month in-world. Now that profiles are web based, I can multitask and view profiles instantly on the web.

 

The keyword in your reply is "former".

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I don't see the point of the web profile. It seems completely useless

 

The point is, you can be searched on the web, not just inside SL. For networking, it's a huge plus.

I would like to think there's more to it than that, such as having functionality via the profile to contact people inworld. Networking can be achieved fine within SL.

 

Very limited networking, yes. As SL strives to be "web 3.0", more than inworld networking will be required. Thinking ahead is what separates Philip's vision from the rest. I truly hope someday the masses will see the big picture. It's not about today, it's about the future.

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@ Shockwave

Thank you, bringing up an item's / notecard's properties could work - which still leaves offline IMs that are capped in world, I would not know how to answer these if there's no way to make someone's profile show - unless there's another way to contact someone without actually viewing the profile.

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How would I be able to contact a customer who had sent me a notecard (or whose IMs don't show in the IM panel because the were capped) this way? How would I be able to redeliver items due to a failed delivery?

 

The same way we've done for months since they made "don't show in search" an option, and since setting a display name effectively deletes their old "true" name from search. We search for their name, and hope they created a group or that their name shows up someplace else. We pray that they sent us a notecard that they themselves created (as opposed to the noob tactic of re-using someone else's notecard).. you can go into inventory, right click on the notecard, and "get properties" to see the Creator, and open an IM from there. We inspect an object they created, to get a link to their name off that. Or we hope that they will IM us.

You can drop inventory on an IM window, so if you can get an IM window open to them, you can easily send them things. 99% of the time, if there's a problem, the customer will IM you, or send you a notecard something (which in 2.5, also opens an IM window).

It's hardly a perfect solution, but this is what we deal with when user privacy is deemed more important than ease of contact. It's the life we live every day in the real world, full of do-not-call lists, and people who are unlisted in the phone book.

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@ Winter

After having sent a 5k refund to the creator of a notecard instead of the person who had actually sent it (and who purchased the same copyable item twice) I always make sure to contact the sender by matching each notecard with my offlines first ;-)

I usually have a lot of capped IMs each day, and while not all of them go to my email I still get most. So usually I copy the sender's name from the offline and then paste it in world to bring up their profile so I can send an IM / answer. If I have to spend half an hour to even find a customer first without any other way of quickly contacting them then I'll have to introduce a notecard only policy unfortunately.

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ohh i see the point in web profiles someone that has a similar name  in world as they do in RL or on some other web profiles, their mom or  someone like their boss can look them up, see the same username for this  game, and see all the little kinks and such that the person is into,  all the little secrets they wanted to keep sepperate and in SL,

ohhh yes, to all those people who say they keep RL and SL sepperate, youve just been FORCED to share your SL with the net

 

the LEAST you LL people can do is make it OPTIONAL!!!

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I honestly don't know if we can override that privacy setting by "just typing" their name into a profile URL manually. Ideally, that privacy setting should hide the profile from search, but it should still BE at that address. I'm not sure how it's implemented though.

You might try that, assuming you know their "true name", since the display name doesn't enter into the URL syntax. For example, try dialing up the webpage with https://my.secondlife.com/<true.name> and see if you can access it in that situation. If you can, you should be able to open an IM from there.

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my MOTHER found my profile and called my CRYING HER EYES OUT because I have an SL dad, she thought I freaking ABANDONED HER

why not do the SMART thing and make your clients happy, by taking the 3 minutes it takes some IT guy to add a toggle on/off switch to this feature

BY THE WAY my mother is ok now after days of crying, and trying to show her what it really is, you can immagine how hard it is for me to refrain from cursing and othersuch vulgar things on this subject

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ohh i see the point in web profiles someone that has a similar name  in world as they do in RL or on some other web profiles, their mom or  someone like their boss can look them up, see the same username for this  game, and see all the little kinks and such that the person is into,  all the little secrets they wanted to keep sepperate and in SL,

ohhh yes, to all those people who say they keep RL and SL sepperate, youve just been FORCED to share your SL with the net

 

the LEAST you LL people can do is make it OPTIONAL!!!

LL said they were going to make it optional. There's a page with options to disable it. But as I mentioned earlier in this discussion, the checkbox to disable it, does not work. You can uncheck it, and then click apply. But when you go back to the settings page, the checkbox is checked again.

A dirty trick LL is playing on everyone who asked that web profiles be removed, and IF THEY COULD NOT BE REMOVED then make them OPT-IN ONLY. Nope, instead it's opt-out, with an opt-out path that doesn't work.

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