The Rodvik Review

[Celestiall Nightfire]

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Porky Gorky wrote:

However, what he is guilty of is not doing anything to stop the increasing loss of private regions.

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I've thought about this a lot.  What I've seen in SL is a ton of university and education sims disappear, due the non-profit discount being eliminated.  Other people who frequent "art" sims and such, may also lament their loss, etc.  

But, what I'm wondering is if the loss of private islands is a deliberate, although indirect, action by LL.  It could be LL is trying to counter the exodus from mainland, and the mainland being swamped in yellow "for sale" colors.  By reducing the number of private islands, it puts the focus back onto mainland.   *If* that's' the case, LL would be better off to address the issues that accompany owning mainland, and stem the tide with positive action. 

[carolechung]

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Celestiall Nightfire wrote:

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Porky Gorky wrote:

However, what he is guilty of is not doing anything to stop the increasing loss of private regions.

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I've thought about this a lot.  What I've seen in SL is a ton of university and education sims disappear, due the non-profit discount being eliminated.  Other people who frequent "art" sims and such, may also lament their loss, etc.  

But, what I'm wondering is if the loss of private islands is a deliberate, although indirect, action by LL.  It could be LL is trying to counter the exodus from mainland, and the mainland being swamped in yellow "for sale" colors.  By reducing the number of private islands, it puts the focus back onto mainland.   *If* that's' the case, LL would be better off to address the issues that accompany owning mainland, and stem the tide with positive action. 

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Since more than 80% of LL's land tier revenue comes from the estate sims, encouraging the decline of estate sims to bolster up the Mainland would be a fairly unwise thing to do. But then again, LL's wisdom in matters of basic arithmetic has been a continuing problem.

[carolechung]

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Porky Gorky wrote:

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Nuhai Ling wrote:

12% drop in private regions last year... enough said!:smileyfrustrated:

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However, what he is guilty of is not doing anything to stop the increasing loss of private regions. He may not be responsible for causing the problem, but he is responsible for fixing it, and from where I am sitting he has taken no notable action to address this issue.

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Actually, one attempt was made by Rod's administration to stop the decline of estate sims. In a weekend in October, 2011, LL waived set-up charges for estate sims. It gained over 500 extras estate sims in those two days. However, it failed miserabley when the land barons cancelled 500 sims in one fell swoop. Rod had to do some quick dancing around giving some sort of promise or deals to the land barons for them to bring all those sims they cancelled back.

The land barons did bring them back, but over a few months, the overall gain of those extra 500 estate sims to the grid was lost in further declines anyway. So now Rod is stuck between a rock and hard place - if he caters to smaller estate sim owners, the barons will retaliate. As it has stood for the last year, most of the decline is from the smaller estate sim owners cancelling their sims.

If he had any guts, he would cancel the Atlas Programs and say, "Tough!" to the land barons who are the only ones who reap the benefits; and simply standardize the Atlas Program benefits for everyone. Sure there would be an initial decline by the barons, but in a few months, growth would begin to happen as the smaller estate sims owners would then have an equal opportunity in the estate land business.

[Thraxas Steamweaver]

Dire. I cannot really put it better than that. A woeful excuse for a CEO, who has steadfastly maintained LL's shocking attitude to their customers, and special contempt reserved for the long standing residents. No vision. No improvements. No clue. ANY other company in the real world would have given him the boot. Then again, he would probably do well in the financial sector where abysmal performance is rewarded.

[Jenni Darkwatch]

When Rod started, he seemed very communicative. Now... well, look at Rods SL profile: https://my.secondlife.com/rodvik.linden

I don't expect SL to do anything but decline. Products come and go. Even behemoths like Facebarf and Twatter will fade sooner or later, it's how the world works.

SL faces a changing world. So far I see no indication of LL being willing or interested in dealing with that.

On the plus side, Rod does seem to be very interested in actually fixing stuff, long standing issues included. Considering that the "fix this" list is long, it'll take a few years at least to catch up. And the reality of software development dictates that new bugs will be introduced, slowing down progress even more.

[161488303349]

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carolechung wrote:

If he had any guts, he would cancel the Atlas Programs and say, "Tough!" to the land barons who are the only ones who reap the benefits; and simply standardize the Atlas Program benefits for everyone. Sure there would be an initial decline by the barons, but in a few months, growth would begin to happen as the smaller estate sims owners would then have an equal opportunity in the estate land business.

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the counter argument which i think would be better is to extended the Atlas program for everyone. do tier bands for sims. more sims you got cheaper it gets. same like mainland parcel tiers

something about like

1-4 : hs $125 : fs $300 : ms $200

5-19 : hs $100: fs $240 ms $150

20-49 : hs $75:  fs 180 :ms $100 (20 or more)

50+ : hs $50: fs 120

 

+

with mainland then do all tier increments in 1024m upto 4 sims worth. then in sims steps after that at $150 each

Premium account:  gets 1024m tier

make tier payable in advance (use it or lose)

change the About land controls so can still Buy but can also Rent by paying either L$ or tier

cancel the requirement to have to own a full sim before you can own a homestead

+

like you say linden have to do something if the decline is to be at least slowed down. the way to do that is to redistribute what money is paid into the game

transferable tiers is the biggest redistributor of all i think. linden end up with it all anyways in the end

- like how many of the Premium accounts who do have a rental or own a private sim also have a linden home just bc they have to do something with the tier

- how many newbie Premiums would move to a private rental if they could pay in tiers

stuff like that

+

the barons might scream about removing the homestead requirement. but if they got deep discounts on bulk purchases then they can offset by being able to provide rentals below standard rate and still make heaps profit

for others like roleplays then any discount on 5 or more sims help answer the tiers to damn high

 

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

Land Barons will scream about anything that impinges on their elevated status and competitiveness. It's a no-win situation for LL.

[161488303349]

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

Land Barons will scream about anything that impinges on their elevated status and competitiveness. It's a no-win situation for LL.

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yes true

they screaming now and going under. so something has to change. the screaming wont stop until it does

[Czari Zenovka]

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Thraxas Steamweaver wrote:

Dire. I cannot really put it better than that. A woeful excuse for a CEO, who has steadfastly maintained LL's shocking attitude to their customers, and special contempt reserved for the long standing residents. No vision. No improvements. No clue.

ANY other company in the real world would have given him the boot.

Then again, he would probably do well in the financial sector where abysmal performance is rewarded.

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I personally would not have hired him to begin with after he "laughed" and asked if SL was still around when offered the CEO position as indicated in this interview.

[Sephina Frostbite]

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Eve Greymoon wrote:

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Darren Scorpio wrote:

Stuff still breaks every Tuesday and Wednesday. The Marketplace is still broken. He never gave us last names back. Customer service has gotten worse. I'd say two years is long enough, time to find a new CEO who actually cares about the product and its users.

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My biggest dissapointment is that he seemed profess an understanding that he personally needed to be more engaged with the community.  That, by and large, has not been the case. Therefore, he appears to not really understand the needs of the revenue producing portion of the community, the buyers and sellers of goods and services in second life. 

I disagree that customer service has gotten worse though. In general, tickets are actually responded to now, usually within 24 hours.  I had tickets sit for months on end without any response before he arrived. For me anyway that particular situation has been much improved. 

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Just so long as the ticket is a simple thing to fix. Throw in anything complicated or anything that has to use brain power and forget it. The customer service is beautiful if you have  lets say a failed delievery. Actual issues they give you a website link that you most likely have already been too and say good by. I actually had a Tech ignore me for 2 hours and when I asked why are you ingoring me they told me they didnt know whow to fix my problem and they were hoping I would have left. 

[Sephina Frostbite]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

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Thraxas Steamweaver wrote:

Dire. I cannot really put it better than that. A woeful excuse for a CEO, who has steadfastly maintained LL's shocking attitude to their customers, and special contempt reserved for the long standing residents. No vision. No improvements. No clue.

ANY other company in the real world would have given him the boot.

Then again, he would probably do well in the financial sector where abysmal performance is rewarded.

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I personally would not have hired him to begin with after he "laughed" and asked if SL was still around when offered the CEO position as indicated in

this

interview.

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Agreed!

[Knowl Paine]

I believe that your comments in this thread, clearly establish your position in your opinion, in regard to Lindens participation in SL.

 I'm not going to discuss romantic interludes between Residents, and Lindens who may no longer work here. The Conduct Policy is clear. I find the use of Emergency Ethics, to be a cheap fear tactic, used to conceal ignorance of a thing.

 

Correcting the Mainland has been discussed at great length. Linden Lab has sufficient data to act upon. Topics such as the Mainland, and a great many others, have been talked to death. The cat is out of the bag, and it's done talking.

I agree, one azzhat can move in, and ruin an entire Region. Enforcement of the TOS, does not protect the common good.

There are real changes that can be made. Only LL can make those changes.

 

I'm not defining what Life is.

 

 

 

   

[solstyse]

Personally, what I would like to see in the next few years is better optimization of what sl already has. I don't really need new features to enjoy. But I would LOVE to see the features that SL already has work more smoothly. I think that fixing that would be the best way to move forward, even if it's not readily apparent.

For example, people are complaining about group chat. I've experienced some problems with it myself. And I really have to wonder how that's allowed to continue. There are rumors about a new ciewer that'll fix all that. I applaud that decision.

LL should participate at least enough to dispell some rumors. I mean, they don't necessarily have to get personal. But they should make some more noise here on the forums. Mesh, for example... Are we getting a deformer or not? We've all talked and speculated enough to thoroughly confuse ourselves. It would be nice if someone who works at LL would give us some clarification.

Speaking of mesh, it took too long after it was introduced for it to be any good. And the viewers are too demanding on the user's graphics cards now. I like mesh, but it can be done a lot better. All of those other games that use mesh lag a lot less than sl does.

There are a couple of reasons why I say that LL should pause on any new features. One is for the reasons listed above. One is that there is a shift to computers that are LESS powerful now. And there is a shift in gaming to consoles. I see a future where any program has to work across a variety of devices, using a variety of operating systems and chipsets. The world's largest software makers are all going for a "single interface" approach, and lightening up their heaviest programs to match this business model. Sooner or later, LL will be forced to follow suit, or be left with fewer people who are even capable of using their programs.

But optimization may be more difficult than we would like to think. For one thing, content lasts forever. The databases just keep growing. Nothing expires, except for the viewers themselves. We all love our inventories, but at some point backward compatibility has to break in order to go forward. Perhaps if LL starts introducing some standards to build optimization, with clear deadlines. Most people are more aware now than in the past anyway. Example: LL could create a schedule, whereby in 3 months, they will delete all objects with textures above 1024 square pixels. Then in three more, all with textures above 512. Bring it down in scheduled steps to what SL is optimized for. Meanwhile, immediately make revisioins that prevent unoptimized content from being uploaded. Same with scripts. "In x amount of months, scripts with _____ obsolete code will be disabled." That sounds worse than it is. If anyone complains about it, that's like complaining that your Windows 95 software won't work on your Windows 7 computer. Sure, you'll miss the old stuff, but not as badly as you think you will.

Even if LL does choose to stop making new features to optimize the old, then thorough testing is needed at every stage, along with an efficient bug reporting method that everybody is familiar with from the moment they create their account. And every revision should be revisited until it's as close to perfect as it can get. Whether we see the changes or they're all just to the foundation, the focus should be on performance above all.

I think by doing that, a few things would be accomplished.

Lag on the mainland would go down. That is, after all one of the main reasons why people want private land.

Server space and load would both decline. That would help control LL's costs. Whether or not they pass the savings to us is a different question.

The possibility of cross-platform ability would stir up some interest. Combined with the increased efficiency, this would greatly help both attracting new accounts and retaining old ones.

Fewer rezz problems. People who get tired of looking at gray blobs get tired of being on sl.

 

Also, I think one of he biggest issues with tier is that going up to the next level always means doubling. I think a more flexible system would treat LL very well. Maybe for mapping purposes land would have to follow the logic that it already does. But I see no reason why prim allowance can't be bought and sold more flexibly than it is. For one size land, having only homestead or full region is kind of limiting. Particularly when the price difference is as steep as it is. If prims were unlocked from land size, then someone who wants to have, say, an ocean sim could have one for far cheaper. While someone who wants to have, say, a skyrise could do so and stuff their building without needing to figure out how to make the empty space around it look more full without spending the prims they'd rather use on furniture.

[Paul Hexem]

I'm biased. I'm a gamer. And generally, those are run much better than SL is. So when I saw his background, I was excited.

But it seems like he forgot everything about that industry when he came over here... Which is stupid, because much of it directly translates. Just look at the communication between MMO developers and the customers on their respective forums, for example.

He's doing a terrible job, and needs to get back on the ball.

[Ted McGregor]

Still waiting for Rod's Tim Schafer-moment .... :robotindifferent:

[Porky Gorky]

One of the expectations I had for Rod has definitely not happened.

I believe SL needs a visible and communicative leader at it's helm. Philip Rosedale fulfilled that role well and often spoke publicly about SL, inworld and out. Whether you loved or hated him, he put himself out there as the face of LL and SL and helped bridge the gap between "us" and "them". When Philip left the first time, Mark Kingdon failed to properly fill his shoes in this capacity and we partially lost this interface with the CEO of the company. The impact of this wasn't immediately obvious as plenty of other Lindens were still engaging with the userbase, but as the Lindens withdrew from the public spotlight it has left a massive empty silence between us and them. I wanted and expected Rod to fill that gap. It wouldn't take much, a weekly blog post just to say "hey, how you guys doing?" would be a 100% improvement on what we currently have which is sporadic communication on 3rd party sites. 

We need a Mayor, a Governor, a leader or public interface..... Whatever you want to call it. I had hoped Rod would take on that role.

[Ceka Cianci]

i was looking at the blog post where they had went back over the things they had done in 2012 and what they are looking to do in 2013..

it reminded me of a question that maybe someone here can answer for me..

 

right around when i had left or maybe just after i left for my break..there were a lot of people coming to the forums saying they were  using way too much bandwith in sl..

i'm curious..was there ever a reason that came of that and if so was it fixed?

[Ceka Cianci]

Rod being more public or not is not going to increase residents staying in second life or really do much of anything..

a lot of people in second life don't even know who he is or what he is..it may make people happier that use the forums and read blogs..but that's not the majority of people..

 

ever since they took over xstreet and the other market ..i forget it's name.. and shut them down to make one market.. and made major changes to where people can do just about everything from their viewer without having to leave their land..they cut off a big chunk of goodness..and from what i seen from there..it started to go downhill..

for a social platform they have turned it into a place you can go and do everything from your viewer like a hermit if you wanted..

12% decrease in land or sims or whatever??more than likely has to do with people not having to own much of anything to sell on the market..

stores closing because nobody shops in world anymore or it's tons cheaper to sell online..

so now we are online in our online homes shopping online online..lol

not to mention LL dipping into customer markets to compete directly with their customers here and there..

 

it's laggy for new users..the controls are a pain in the but still..you have to figure out every single move you make when you are new..

new users get here and get frustrated and leave..some come back or stay ..but most don't come back..

so new residents numbers staying don't really improve..

they have thinned down the market of people being interested..

you might be able to do all kinds of stuff here? but what good is that if they can't hold the new users attention long enough for them to see?

honestly as far as products go..it's really behind the times..

and really i don't think they care if it grows..

 

they wouldn't have new users being dropped all over tarnation when they get here if they gave a crap about new resident numbers..

and the places they visit first would sure be a heck of a lot more guarded  than the cesspools they are that set first impressions on new users..

a lot fo the info hubs these people first get to? i'm suprized they get even 15% staying..

 

cutting back on customer service? outsourcing jobs?

those are some big hints that it's about riding the train for what it's worth till we run out of tracks..

i will say one thing..their viewer seems to be improving..

the couple times i've used it recently..

 

a lot of this was put into place before Rod got here..

but really..when he asked what they could do about new residents numbers..

that was the last time i seen hide or hair of him..

and i haven't seen much concern for those numbers in any of the changes..so i'm just guessing it was a fluffer question..

if they want to make sl improve..make it better for new residents by making it more appealing to stick around to see the good stuff..

and also..get it back to where it is more social and stop making it so easy for the marketplace to cut the throats of those that wish to have inworld market places..

 

 

 

[Darren Scorpio]

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Ceka Cianci wrote:

Rod being more public or not is not going to increase residents staying in second life or really do much of anything..

a lot of people in second life don't even know who he is or what he is..it may make people happier that use the forums and read blogs..but that's not the majority of people..

 

ever since they took over xstreet and the other market ..i forget it's name.. and shut them down to make one market.. and made major changes to where people can do just about everything from their viewer without having to leave thier land..they cut off a big chunk of goodness..and from what i seen from there..it started to go downhill..

for a social platform they have turned it into a place you can go and do everything from your viewer like a hermit if you wanted..

12% decrease in land or sims or whatever??more than likely has to do with people not having to own much of anything to sell on the market..

stores closing because nobody shops in world anymore or it's tons cheaper to sell online..

so now we are online in our online homes shopping online online..lol

not to meantion LL dipping into customer markets to compete directly with their customers here and there..

 

it's laggy for new users..the controls are a pain in the but still..you have to figure out every single move you make when you are new..

new users get here and get frustrated and leave..some come back or stay ..but most don't come back..

so new residents numbers staying don't really improve..

they have thinned down the market of people being interested..

you might be able to do all kinds of stuff here? but what good is that if they can't hold the new users attention long enough for them to see?

honestly as far as products go..it's really behind the times..

and really i don't think they care if it grows..

 

they woudln't have new users being dropped all over tarnation when they get here if they gave a crap about new resident numbers..

and the places they visit first would sure be a heck of a lot more guarded  than the cesspools they are that set first impressions on new users..

a lot fo the info hubs these people first get to? i'm suprized they get even 15% staying..

 

cutting back on customer service? outsourcing jobs?

those are some big hints that it's about riding the train for what it's worth till we run out of tracks..

i will say one thing..thier viewer seems to be improving..

the couple times i've used it recently..

a lto of this was put into place before Rod got here..

but really..when he asked what they could do about new residenst numbers..

that was the last time i seen hide or hair of him..

and i haven't seen much concern for those numbers in any of the changes..so i'm just guessing it was a fluffer question..

 

 

 

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This^^

[Ceka Cianci]

sorry..i did some editing in hopes of nobody seeing it yet lol

[Pamela Galli]

Rodvik seems unaware that SL requires governance. It is not a website and LL is not Blogger. Sl is a virtual WORLD. Yes, governance requires more staff dedicated to governing -- which requires more money. So, come up with the money from those making it, who also happen to be those most invested in SL, and concerned about the lack of governance. 

 

If someone is cashing out Lindens, why not require land ownership? Why should those who cash out not have some investment in SL? especially when a part of the increased money going to LL would pay for governance staff? 

[Paul Hexem]

This is relevant to the discussion.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/

 

Take a look. That is the World of Warcraft forums. You don't have to log in or click anything. Just look at that main forum page.

Right at the top, it shows posts by Blizzard employees, when they made the post, and in which thread they replied to (or started). Looking at some of those timestamps, you can see how often they communicate with their customers, on various topics.

 

That is what I expected when a gamer CEO took over.

[Ceka Cianci]

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Gadget Portal wrote:

This is relevant to the discussion.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/

 

Take a look. That is the World of Warcraft forums. You don't have to log in or click anything. Just look at that main forum page.

Right at the top, it shows posts by Blizzard employees, when they made the post, and in which thread they replied to (or started). Looking at some of those timestamps, you can see how often they communicate with their customers, on various topics.

 

That is what I expected when a gamer CEO took over.

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i've actually went back there..Pandas!!! \o/

i had too!!

 hehehehe

a lot of what i had said earlier had a big part of how Blizz does deal with their customers..

i had a problem about a month back..i went to either the customer support or maybe it was the technical support..i forget..

anyways i posted up in there with my problem..no less that 15 minutes there was a response from a Blue..

i see a lot of people complain over there about Blizz..mostly in gen chat..

then i think about here and think to myself..

you know?

you have it good here WoW peeps..

there are places that users feel they are ignored and with very good reason..

i look here then i look there and both being old worlds..

this one here just doesn't give the impression of giving nowhere near as much of a damn..

 

everyone is going to have their own impression left on them by LL..

this was the one that has been set for me when i look at different V-worlds and this one..

as much as i used to give them the benefit of the doubt..

i'm done even really being worried about it..

they can sink or swim..

i will feel bad for their customers..but i'm done being worried about SL itself sticking around..there is too much out there to be stuck in one place with my wheels spinning..

my money gets spent where i get my best return..

on my enjoyment..not my frustrations anymore..

i still come here once in a while for a log in or two in world..that and to hang in the forums for good kicks with everyone i have met over the years..

 

 

 

but as far as getting land or being premium..those are done with..at least for now..

it just feels like a bad investment of time in there now..

i'd rather spend it on a place that i feel has an ear open and pays some sort of attention..that and is there when i have problems that need a fix..

 

here..they have cut back on staff and use their own users for a lot of their customer service and question answering..

you guys..

and what thanks do you get?

direct competition from them in your markets..

that and make a ticket so we can throw you in the loop of maybe we can get to it this week or next  so you can open another ticket when we only give you a beat around the bush sort of answer that won't help you..

bleh..

they just left a bad taste  seeing as when i had left people were wondering where they are..and here we are months and months later and people are still wondering when they are gonna surface..

 

don't hold your breath..i know i stopped holding mine a good while ago..

 

 

 

 

[Porky Gorky]

Dibs on Ceka's inventory. :matte-motes-big-grin:

[Ceka Cianci]

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Porky Gorky wrote:

Dibs on Ceka's inventory. 

:matte-motes-big-grin:

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LOL

Nobody is getting all mah stuffs!!

i am not quitting..just majorly cut back my time here is all..

 

i just see them putting distance between themselves and the user in more than a few places..

i mean look at the events they used to hold and look how many have to be ran by the users now?

pretty soon users will be holding SL birthdays rather than LL hehehehe