Kudos to Rodvik Linden & his team at the Lab

[Lokifluff Clarity]

I know... I know... this goes against the grain of bashing Linden Lab for everything & anything that they do.  But I felt I had to write.  Rodvik, you inherited  some major problems when you took over SL, and you have slowly been fixing them one by one.  I just wished to acknowledge this.  Your work on the back end of SL is obvious in my opinion and long overdue.  There is no way SL could move forward without some of the issues sorted.  It feels at times like SL is at last growing up a little.  Some of the things I would like to say 'kudos' for are as follows:

Alpha Sorting - improved

Sim Crossings - improved (though there is definitely still room for improvement

Group Chat - improved

Mesh implementation - improving, but please provide more simply explained info on how weights are calculated

SL Marketplace Direct Delivery - great addition, I appreciate not everyone agrees, but it works for me just fine & beats the hell out of having to wait for a magic box delivery

Greater Region & Parcel Controls - definite improvement

Land Function so avatars can't see you on your parcel - genius... this should have been implemented from the start as it has greatly reduced griefing

Putting abandoned land immediately up for sale at L$1 per sq - genius.  I have noticed that the Mainland land market is changing as a result, and so far I think it has been for the better.

Concierge Support - greatly improved, although nowhere near the levels it was before your precedessors broke it. It used to be the very reason why everyone went premium. General support is improving as well, with tickets filed getting seen in days rather than weeks or months

The final thing I wish to acknowledge is that you appear to have wisely not jumped in and messed with tier pricing without giving it a great deal of thought, in the face of a barrage of calls for you to do so.  Thank you for not knee jerking on this.  The SL economy has taken enough hits, and I would like to see it settle down some more before adding another variable.

As I had hoped you would do, instead of raising or lowering tier prices you have in fact allowed more prims per parcel vis-a-vis the recently implemented Land Impact calculations.  Genius.  You did exactly what I was hoping you would do, but in a way I never imagined.  So everyone gets more bang for their buck so to speak.  Great compromise.  Although because you don't tend to shout from the rooftops about the good things you are doing, I am pretty sure that there are quite a few content creators who still have not figured out this new function exists.  (Change your old fashioned prim (not sculptie) based objects to Convex under the Features tab in the Edit window folks and you will see what I mean!)

Now if you could just fix the mess of in-world search that your predecessors made.. as it is too big, bulky, laboursome and ridiculously slow.... then I will be a VERY happy neko.

Oh, and maybe increase the free tier from 512 to 1024 for mainland - people tend to like a square to work from rather than a tiny rectangle.  This would make Mainland equally as attractive as a Linden home for many folk. 

Keep 'em coming Rodvik... :-)

[Phil Deakins]

Just a quick comment on something you said early in the post. I dislike LL (the company - not each individual) enormously, and I often say so. But I don't criticise LL for anything and everything. I criticise them only for things they do wrong. I'm not going to list them but I'll just mention one of the things, because you listed it for kudos in your post.

From what I read in the Merchant forum, the marketplace is a real shambles. LL has made a real pig's ear of something that worked fine when they took it over. They tried to improve it but they made it much much worse. You listed it as a positive. I would list it as incompetence at LL. Furthermore, when they took it over, under a different name, they promoted it so unscrupulously that the promotions were literally intentional acts against their own paying customers. I won't get into details about it, but it's just one of the reasons why I dislike LL, the company, so very much, and I'll criticise LL when they do wrong things. I don't mean things that I don't like. I mean things that they do that are literally against their own paying customers.

[Rival Destiny]

....Overall?  I'll take whatever it is you're smokin

[Porky Gorky]

aaaah you must be from a parallel universe in which LL made all the right decisions and things got better. Either that or you are mental.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 

From what I read in the Merchant forum, the marketplace is a real shambles. LL has made a real pig's ear of something that worked fine when they took it over. They tried to improve it but they made it much much worse. You listed it as a positive. I would list it as incompetence at LL. Furthermore, when they took it over, under a different name, they promoted it so unscrupulously that the promotions were literally intentional acts

against

their own paying customers. I won't get into details about it, but it's just one of the reasons why I dislike LL, the company, so very much, and I'll criticise LL when they do wrong things. I don't mean things that I don't like. I mean things that they do that are literally against their own paying customers.

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QFT!  I was wondering if the OP has read the Merchant Forums recently.  Even longtime, dedicated merchants who generally stood up against what the OP deems "bashing" are now utterly fed up.  Two that I know of have closed their stores (one after losing her entire business inventory and got the "customer no-service" answer of, basically, "Too bad.  Our TOS states we don't guarantee anything").  Merchants are having HUGE chunks of lindens taken from their accounts for listing enhancements they can't change.  Customers are receiving merchandise from the MP and promptly being "refunded" for the purchase while the merchant never received the funds and status shows the purchase "stuck."  And these have nothing to do with DD or MB.

Oh, and the mixed listings are still plaguing the MP...since last March.  You get the idea....

ETA: Ah, I see why the glowing MP statements by the OP.  OP rents/sells land and MP listings are 0L descriptions.  Quite a different thing from those merchants who sell products for a purchase price on the MP.  OF COURSE *you* haven't had a problem.

 

[Canoro Philipp]

i do acknowledge the improvements that have been done since Rodvik start as CEO, like bringing mesh, altought it had problems with clothing, it made wonders for everything else, mesh things look more detailed and cause less lag, also i liked how he transformed viewer 2 into the flexible user interface, thats what the viewer needed, more ways to adapt to the different types of users, and having the Second Life Destination Guide and Whats Hot in the login page, was genius! one of the complains of users was that they didnt know where to go or where to meet people, that solved it right there, also is great what he is doing in improving the creating tools, with pathfinding and the temporal wearables that dont have to fill up your inventory, and the upcoming release of materials, with all that is making Second Life look better. the my.second life profiles has been a great hit, there is many people using them, it saved us from getting our accounts deleted from other social networks because we didnt want to give our real life information, the my.second life profiles allow everyone to share pictures, locations, or whatever they want to say, also, i like the improvements on search, comparing how it was like to how is today, i can find what i want almost all the time, unless it has been created yet, or the owner dont want it to appear in search, which is very respectable.

Rodvik & team, thanks for the improvements, they are being appreciated.

[Teagan Tobias]

I see this is your 4th post, how do you know what has been improved?

Group chat improved, no not at all, in fact when they deleted Communicate they did harm to chat of all kinds. Now I have things all over my screen because if I close them I'll never get back to a conversation.

But I will give them a kudos on saving me money. In V1 search you hand one line for each live event, all I go to, that has been increased to 4-6 lines so now instead of 60 to 70 lines to look through I have HUNDREDS of lines to look through. And how does that save me money, easy, I give up and find something else to do, as in, not on SL because the live shows is just about all I do in SL, cant find them, don't go, don't tip, same money.

Hey LL, put Communicate in the toolbox so we can use it if we like to.

And for gods sake, bring back V1 search!!!!!!!!

[Prokofy Neva]

What is Alpha Sorting? Oh, never mind, I don't think I want to know.

Um, Governor Linden land for $1/  has indeed changed the market -- it's made it plummet to absolutely bottom -- and below. You can no longer sell your land to bots except for about 0.01 per meter.

Greater region controls? Really? Where? What I'm seeing on viewer 3 is just hobble after hobble to the landlord work flow -- too many steps to adjust group membership powers, prims on land, etc. etc.

Concierge has gotten better, to be sure.

[Conifer Dada]

I would agree that SL works pretty well at the moment.  The only real problem I get is slow rez times at busy places - but that could be my internet connection or computer.  

[Rya Nitely]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

From what I read in the Merchant forum, the marketplace is a real shambles.

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I think you're paying too much attention to the views of a very small group of people.

[Solar Legion]

Alpha Sorting - also called Transparency Sorting. It is exactly what is says on the label.

[Phil Deakins]

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Rya Nitely wrote:

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Phil Deakins wrote:

From what I read in the Merchant forum, the marketplace is a real shambles.

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I think you're paying too much attention to the views of a very small group of people.

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The number who post may be very small, but the fundamental faults are real.

[Qie Niangao]

If I'm honest with myself, I largely agree with the OP: things have improved. Maybe it's something in my temperament to feel compelled to add "... yes, but..." to each point, but overall, yeah, things have improved.

But I don't understand this part:

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Putting abandoned land immediately up for sale at L$1 per sq - genius.  I have noticed that the Mainland land market is changing as a result, and so far I think it has been for the better.

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I don't blame the L$1/ auto-sale of abandoned land for the failure of the Mainland market, although many do; Prokofy is certainly not alone in thinking this. I think the market was collapsing for lack of demand well before the L$1 process started, and that the change neither hastened nor slowed the collapse.

But the OP claims to have seen a change in the market, and judges it to be for the better. I'd be very interested to know more about this change.

[Lokifluff Clarity]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

But the OP claims to have seen a change in the market, and judges it to be for the better. I'd be very interested to know more about this change.

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 Hi Qie - I agree with your point about the market already collapsing/ed through lack of demand when they introduced the auto sale function.  My personal observation now (with absolutely no warranties as to whether it is based upon fact or not) is that it is changing because the exposure to griefing and extortion, although not eradicated, has diminished.

 

Previously, if someone had paid a large amount of Lindens for a parcel, but then had an 'inconsiderate neighbour' move in next door, moving became tricky as selling the parcel was always going to lose them money.  They were therefore always somewhat 'locked in' to their purchase in a sense, for even if the possibility to move was there, the incentive was perhaps not.  Many disputes then arose through a battle of wills as to who would give in first & leave.  This sort of ill feeling and anger would then spread across the grid as a sort of permeating 'mood'.

 

Now though, for those who have bought land at the lower prices since the introduction of the auto sale function, if the area changes and it is not to their liking then having the lowered price for land increases their movability. A griefer/extortionist moves in... the encumbant resident just moves out & finds somewhere else as the initial investment is not so high.  Losing L$1 per sq is a big different to losing L$10 per sq.  As a result, lovely pockets of neighbourhoods are forming, with great little communities slowly building.  The folk with the ugly or 'inconsiderate' builds are also happy as they usually just wanted everyone to leave anyway so they could have the space to themselves.  Everyone is happy all around... thus a less angry' mood circles around the grid.  By not being locked into the higher land prices people are economically more empowered.

Furthermore, as folks can move away from extortionists easier thereby not fuelling the extortion market, the extortionists have had less incentive to carry on their activities and have slowly reduced in number, and so the downward spiral in the extortion market continues.

 

As a result, as I said, I feel I have seen the Mainland slowly changing and so far for the better.  I certainly don't expect this situation to remain though, hence my veto with the use of the phrase "so far I think".

 

I hope this clarifies... :-)

[Qie Niangao]

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... as folks can move away from extortionists easier thereby not fuelling the extortion market, the extortionists have had less incentive to carry on their activities and have slowly reduced in number, and so the downward spiral in the extortion market continues.

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Thanks. That's an interesting perspective. (I wish that downward spiral would suck in an old-school microparcel scammer still operating in my back yard, but they are indeed much fewer than at the height of the market.)

I'm not so sure the overall mood is much improved, given the significant loss in value of long-held land, but that was going to happen anyway as demand declined.

To belabor the point (which admittedly better fits the Mainland forum), the change to L$1/m2 auto-sale of abandoned land does remove one lever that the Lab had for controlling land supply. Before, they could just slow-roll bringing abandoned land to auction. The thing is, however, I think they've begun exercising that control again anyway: as Prokofy notes in another thread, there seems to be more abandoned land going to auction lately, instead of being immediately set for sale. Also, LL does not aggressively force-abandon group land that's not covered by contributed tier, and I suspect the same is true of land owned by defunct accounts that pay no tier. Keeping that non-performing land off the market does reduce oversupply. (It also means that Tyche's statistics necessarily underestimate the scope of abandoned Mainland, there being no practical way to count non-performing land that's not officially abandoned.)

[Lynda Baran]

Sim Border Crossing is better?    Maybe if you're comparing it to driving a Yugo into a brick wall.   As someone who both sails and flies, on almost a dialy basis, I can tell you it has been significantly better in the past than it is now.

[Rhys Goode]

I am a simple customer using Marketplace to shop for stuff from time to time.  Yeah it has warts, and when it does mess up bad, I'm sure its a big PIA for the merchants.   But as a shopper using it to locate stuff,  I think its a lot more usable than 2 or 3 years ago.  

[Nuhai Ling]

Waaaaahahahahaha! Thank you for the good laugh, I needed it! :smileylol:

[Phil Deakins]

The major problems with the marketplace are for sellers, not buyers. LL has made a right pig's ear of it.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

The major problems with the marketplace are for sellers, not buyers. LL has made a right pig's ear of it.

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And yet another bug feature has surfaced.  Some of us are experiencing setting our items with the permissions we choose, even double-checking them with an alt, placing them on the MP (DD or MB makes no difference with this) and a random item will spontaneously change permissions, which makes for an unhappy customer to say the least.

I recall a thread about this happening (on Merchants Forum) a month or so ago, then last night someone posted this happening.  Ironically, I was contacted by a customer this morning to let me know the modifiable item she purchased from me was not modifiable.  Pulled it off the MP, checked it out...looked fine to me...sent a copy to my alt....the mod perm had dropped again in a simple transfer.  What the heck???

I added my experience to the new post and another merchant who has a large store had the same thing happen, but with only one particular gown in one particular color.  The other gowns in other colors were fine. 

The MP is doing one thing great - making merchants look bad.

 

 

 

[Melita Magic]

I like Rodvik.

One thing I really wish for though? Some government. In other words SL is still the wild west and we need a sheriff in town. Too many instances of griefing or harassment on a continuing basis; and there is no way to get it reliably and quickly addressed. Can't retain people who are under siege. In SL, unlike Troy, they have the choice to flee.