Inworld Traffic count problems

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, I read a blog today about people complaining about traffic counts being wrong. I login and check. Yep, mine only says 203. My scripted counter says 71. This means that each person spent less than 3 minutes on my stores parcel. The average amount of time some1 usually spends on my parcel is near 20 minutes. So, something is not right.

[Zanara Zenovka]

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-8099?

[Medhue Simoni]

I don't know whether to thank you for that link or not. LOL

I'm wondering why I even pay LL at all and where all that money goes. You'd think they would at least tell us what the heck is going on. It's almost like that are purposely trying to ruin their own business and trying to keep us all in the dark as long as they can.

[phaedra Exonar]

I do a weekly traffic report of 9 sims that are places that I think should be doing good, or are places I'm thinking of opening a shop at.  When I checked today they all were down this week by 25% to 75%, sadly my list is only 8 now, one of my favorite sims closed down after 5 years.  To hard to tell what the numbers mean the first week of a change like this, all so SL has hit a new low record concurrency for the last 3 years, likely longer, so that may be part of it to.  Hard to tell to how bots are effected by this change, 3 of the sims I track have bots one stayed the same, one lost 25%, and the other lost 75%. 

My conclusion is that with all the information I track, I simply have a more detailed picture that makes no sence lol

 

 

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, I'll say what I understand. I've been in the early adoption program for pathfinding since LL first asked people to volunteer. This traffic issue was not anything I've seen until today. So, the speculation about this being related to pathfinding has got to be wrong. That said, it doesn't mean they didn't slip something by in the last update. Plus, since the update was rolled out on the 8th, I've not checked until today, only cause I read stuff in a blog. In the inworld search, my traffic is still normal, so this had to of happened for me in the last couple of days.

Now, the sad part is, this was brought to their attention almost a month ago, and LL has said nothing. Do they not think they are going to lose more sims over this? I have to pay my tier in 2 days and I'm questioning whether to pay it or not. I don't need a full sim. The only reason I will probably pay it is because of the couple of renters(friends) that I have on the sim. If not for them, I'd seriously consider not paying it, just because LL treats us like crap and thinks they can get away with not saying a word.

[Dora Gustafson]

Last Thursday and Friday a lot of regions were down for an extended period of time.
That had a bad impact on traffic numbers in those regions.

[Darrius Gothly]

---

Dora Gustafson wrote:

Last Thursday and Friday a lot of regions were down for an extended period of time.

That had a bad impact on traffic numbers in those regions.

---

The precipitous drop in Parcel Traffic numbers goes way beyond a temporary outage. It's gone grid-wide with last week's server rollouts and has been playing hob with Sim and Business owners since. Take a moment to go look at the JIRA Issue having to do with this problem and you'll see just how serious this latest "bug" has become:

JIRA Issue SVC-8099

[Iam Runningbear]

Traffic problems still continue. Last Fridays problems have nothing to do with yesterdays traffic counts.

Let me rephrase this.

It has everything to do with it. Something went horribly wrong. and it continues to this date to be horribly wrong and if not fixed soon could have catastrophic effects

Wake Up LL!!! Its time to go to work!!

 

Hmmmm..Maybe it should be School.

[Lydia Craig]

Given the chaos and problems caused by last weeks restart and the fact that this has litter made business all but impossible since last Wednesday, the sim on which our main business is located has crashed, been down or reset at least 14 and likely 15 times and the traffic count is totally inaccurate, one wonders if LL should not consider not charging tier this month since they are obviously not delivering the services they should be providing.  I don't expect this to happen, but without a dramatic gesture like that I also do not see SL surviving much longer since when you take away the bots that are artifically propping up concurrency you get a live concurrency number that closely resembles what I saw when I first came to SL over six years ago.

[Iam Runningbear]

Maybe SL should not charge tier this month.

Really, not charging tier for a month makes sense,

Because if people abandon sl and leave. LL will loosed the tier anyway,

But if they don't charge tier this month they may stay and LL has a chance to correct this problem and keep them and their business

[Medhue Simoni]

Personally, I think LL goes about server code totally wrong. They basically have a system by which they are guaranteeing themselves constant problems. It's 1 thing to update viewer code regularly. We can use any number of viewers. Server code tho, that impacts every1 and never in a good way. My suggestion would be to only update server code a few times a year. Maybe quarterly. Updating it constantly just causes way too many problems on a regular basis, making the economic environment crazy. Economies need stability to function at it's optimum level.

Of course, this is a whole different issue than LL constantly leaving us in the dark. Problems are going to happen, that is for sure, but the lack of communication is inexcusable.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

Personally, I think LL goes about server code totally wrong. They basically have a system by which they are guaranteeing themselves constant problems. It's 1 thing to update viewer code regularly. We can use any number of viewers. Server code tho, that impacts every1 and never in a good way. My suggestion would be to only update server code a few times a year. Maybe quarterly. Updating it constantly just causes way too many problems on a regular basis, making the economic environment crazy. Economies need stability to function at it's optimum level.

Of course, this is a whole different issue than LL constantly leaving us in the dark. Problems are going to happen, that is for sure, but the lack of communication is inexcusable.

---

A subject I have opined about repeatedly in my blog and on these forums. Unfortunately the Lab's lack of talking skill seems to be matched by their lack of listening skill. If they actually believed we're serious, dedicated and knowledgeable people then they might actually give credence to what we say. However it seems that no amount of rational discussion is sufficient to cause them to respond.

Just yesterday WorkingOnIt Linden jumped into the JIRA on the Traffic Issue to delete a number of disruptive messages ... yet totally FAILED to take the time to say "We hear you and we're working on it." (The link takes you right to the history of their edits yesterday.)

*smacks head on keyboard until the nauseous feeling passes*

[Medhue Simoni]

At the server meeting right now.

 Andrew Linden says there is a fix for the traffic bug and it is being deployed today. This will not show up until tomorrow or Thrusday.

 

Yay! Now I wonder if they will anounce that to any1 outside the user group meeting.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

At the server meeting right now.

 

Andrew Linden says there is a fix for the traffic bug and it is being deployed today. This will not show up until tomorrow or Thrusday.

 

Yay! Now I wonder if they will anounce that to any1 outside the user group meeting.

---

Certainly would be NICE if someone from the Sim Server UG would pop over to the JIRA and make an announcement there. Near as I can tell, the number of Sims abandoned is into double-digits now .. and growing. Or is LL not interested in protecting the one remaining reliable source of income they have? Hmmm ... well, whatev.

[Medhue Simoni]

Some1 ask Andrew to update the jira, and he said that he wanted to check something before posting in the jira.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

Some1 ask Andrew to update the jira, and he said that he wanted to check something before posting in the jira.

---

Yeah, why not? We've already gone almost a month without a single whisper of acknowledgement or status update from a Linden. What's another day going to hurt?

Oh, right .. the three people today threatening to abandon their Sims. Mehh .. whatev.

Is it really THAT hard to post "We've made a change that we believe will fix the problem. We are waiting for the data to update to be sure. But in the meantime we have taken action that should resolve this issue." Or am I just being a persnickity old snoot with too much free time on my hands and a propensity for armchair quarterbacking?

[Pamela Galli]

Of course I agree about the lack of communication -- but I have to say that comments like "LL should not charge tier for a month" reinforce LL's apparent perception that residents are clueless. I mean, how is LL supposed to operate if they just decide to give away their product for free for a month?

[Spica Inventor]

I thought L.L.s bread and butter these days was taking their 100% cut on the marketplace. hehe ;-D

[Darrius Gothly]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Of course I agree about the lack of communication -- but I have to say that comments like "LL should not charge tier for a month" reinforce LL's apparent perception that residents are clueless. I mean, how is LL supposed to operate if they just decide to give away their product for free for a month?

---

That quote isn't from me .. but I certainly understand the frustration at its core. To answer your question directly .. they can survive using the same methods we use to survive a month or more with no sales, no proper tools, no updates on the progress toward fixing of critical bugs .. and no clue if the issues at the root of these problems are even in LL's crosshairs.

After all, they "just decided" to take steps and back projects that had no direct relationship to fixing outstanding bugs. They "just decided" to invest money and work-hours in directions that the customers pleaded with them to drop. And they "just decided" to stay mum when any responsible leader would have stood up front and charted the direction for all to see. So perhaps they should "just decide" to take the punishment for their missteps in the form of lost revenue too.

Perhaps the pinch they would feel when suddenly faced with a reduction in income that requires they short a few paychecks, or let go of (or perhaps just furlough) a few dozen critical employees .. or refocus their efforts into solving the problems that a majority of their paying customers demand.

I realize that running a company on no income is damned hard. I spent a good part of my "Professional Career" as an Entrepreneur so I'm well versed in making the impossible happen with nothing more than the desire to succeed. But LL has continued to assume that we will take hit after hit, many of them without warning or rational reasoning to justify them, and still stand quietly by as they continue running a direction that is counter to what makes sense from every rational point of view.

It's called "Tough Love" by some. It's called "Reality Check" by others. And perhaps LL is in need of both in order to drive home the point that they are making decisions that repeatedly push more and more customers out the door.

Since I got "involved" in the spasms that pass for LL's Corporate Direction a few years back, I've seen them ignore solutions that would go a long way toward reassuring their customers that they at least care that their paychecks are being earned. I have seen them offer up "explanations" that are on their face laughable, and when analyzed in greater detail leave me gasping for air from the sheer chutzpah it took to utter such absurdities as though they were facts.

By my loose reckoning, this latest Parcel Traffic issue has most likely cost them about $6000 per month in lost Tier. That's a reasonable month's pay for an intern (in West Coast dollars anyway) ... so which head gets lopped off as a result?

I'll go find us a mirror .. cuz I think once again the real answer can be found inside.

[Innula Zenovka]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Of course I agree about the lack of communication -- but I have to say that comments like "LL should not charge tier for a month" reinforce LL's apparent perception that residents are clueless. I mean, how is LL supposed to operate if they just decide to give away their product for free for a month?

---

That quote isn't from me .. but I certainly understand the frustration at its core. To answer your question directly .. they can survive using the same methods we use to survive a month or more with no sales, no proper tools, no updates on the progress toward fixing of critical bugs .. and no clue if the issues at the root of these problems are even in LL's crosshairs.

---

Have you really had no sales for a month?   Mine have been pretty much what I'd expect for this time of year.

[Medhue Simoni]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Of course I agree about the lack of communication -- but I have to say that comments like "LL should not charge tier for a month" reinforce LL's apparent perception that residents are clueless. I mean, how is LL supposed to operate if they just decide to give away their product for free for a month?

---

Of course, your point is valid, but ...... If we, the people that pay those tiers, don't see any value at all from paying them, then LL will continuously lose their profits as time goes on, as they are now. Just like we would give away products to boost sales, and show our appreciation, LL could do the same thing. Notice how the only time LL ever gives anything away, it is simply some free avatars and objects that they paid pennies for, and that further erodes our profits.

When LL screws up, or ignores us when we bring things to their attention, we lose out immediately. LL's losses come much farther down the line. If LL were directly affected by their own mistakes, you can bet that things would be handled much differently. Imagine if the Commerce Team were only paid by the commission that we pay them, much like Xstreet worked? If they woke up 1 morning to find that the site was down all night? You can bet they'd work their butts off, around the clock, to fix it.

More and more, I see LL's tier system as a shield from their own missteps. This is exactly why there is a huge disconnect between us and them. They still get paid their bloated salaries, while we take the hits. This latest event is a prime example. The bug was reported a month ago, and instead of doing something, they ignored it. Could you do that? I definitely could not. In the past, I was very much against LL's taking more of our profits, but it seems pretty obvious now that if LL's business plan was more directly affected by their mistakes, things would run alot better.

Yes, I got sales, and I'm sure most people got some sales, but what if LL's profits were cut by 30% all of a sudden? Them giving free tier for 1 month, and every employee taking that same hit, would give them all just a little clue of what we face on a regular basis. Do you think the Lindens would be pissed off and complaining like mad, if their pay got cut massively out of the blue? I'm sure they would not treat us with such distain and take what we say more seriously. We'd all be in the same boat, instead of Lindens sitting dry and suntanning on the decks of their massive ship, while we scramble for a lifesaver.

I think it should be quite obvious to every1 that it is LL that is clueless.

[Pamela Galli]

Medhue, LL is not going to do without tier for a month. They would not even consider such a thing, not for a second. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Darrius Gothly]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

Have you really had no sales for a month?   Mine have been pretty much what I'd expect for this time of year.

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As I mentioned on the JIRA, this "bug" has actually been good for me. But I find it hard to stand by and watch the sham they call "Customer Service". I certainly would never treat customers like LL has treated us .. for years. I object to a company that continues to treat its source of income as an "inconvenient nuisance".

And I keep stirring up a dust storm because I love what SL was, can be and should be .. if only the people that run it treated it like the marvel of community, creativity and dreams that it is.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

Of course I agree about the lack of communication -- but I have to say that comments like "LL should not charge tier for a month" reinforce LL's apparent perception that residents are clueless. I mean, how is LL supposed to operate if they just decide to give away their product for free for a month?

---

Of course, your point is valid, but ...... If we, the people that pay those tiers, don't see any value at all from paying them, then LL will continuously lose their profits as time goes on, as they are now. Just like we would give away products to boost sales, and show our appreciation, LL could do the same thing. Notice how the only time LL ever gives anything away, it is simply some free avatars and objects that they paid pennies for, and that further erodes our profits.

When LL screws up, or ignores us when we bring things to their attention, we lose out immediately. LL's losses come much farther down the line. If LL were directly affected by their own mistakes, you can bet that things would be handled much differently. Imagine if the Commerce Team were only paid by the commission that we pay them, much like Xstreet worked? If they woke up 1 morning to find that the site was down all night? You can bet they'd work their butts off, around the clock, to fix it.

More and more, I see LL's tier system as a shield from their own missteps. This is exactly why there is a huge disconnect between us and them. They still get paid their bloated salaries, while we take the hits. This latest event is a prime example. The bug was reported a month ago, and instead of doing something, they ignored it. Could you do that? I definitely could not. In the past, I was very much against LL's taking more of our profits, but it seems pretty obvious now that if LL's business plan was more directly affected by their mistakes, things would run alot better.

Yes, I got sales, and I'm sure most people got some sales, but what if LL's profits were cut by 30% all of a sudden? Them giving free tier for 1 month, and every employee taking that same hit, would give them all just a little clue of what we face on a regular basis. Do you think the Lindens would be pissed off and complaining like mad, if their pay got cut massively out of the blue? I'm sure they would not treat us with such distain and take what we say more seriously. We'd all be in the same boat, instead of Lindens sitting dry and suntanning on the decks of their massive ship, while we scramble for a lifesaver.

I think it should be quite obvious to every1 that it is LL that is clueless.

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[Josh Susanto]

>Medhue, LL is not going to do without tier for a month. They would not even consider such a thing, not for a second. 

If everyone just agreed not to pay it, LL wouldn't have to consider anything.