Near useless profiles

[Phil Deakins]

I'm getting very fed up of the Profiles often not loading at all. There was never anything wrong with the old profiles - they always loaded quickly - but the web-based ones have never been good. When they load, they are very slow to load, and sometimes they simply don't load at all  Why on earth LL continues with them is beyond my comprehension - except that it's LL that has idiots for decision-makers.

Usually, it's no big deal when a profile fails to load but there are times when it does matter. One of them is when you want to TP someone you are in an IM with. The obvious thing would be to right-click the name and select 'teleport' from the options. But teleport isn't an option, so you have to select to view the profile instead and teleport the person from there. If the profile won't load, as often happens, you're reduced to doing a search for the person and taking it from there. Bloody ridiculous design.

[Innula Zenovka]

Many TPVs (certainly Catznip) have an option to teleport people direct from the IM window.   It might be easier for the Official Viewer simply to adopt that rather than for LL to try redesigning profiles yet again.

[Freya Mokusei]

my.secondlife.com is End Of Life. No updates considered or pending. I am sure this tells you more than enough.

My personal favourite is Web Search - oftentimes you can load the parcel info, including visible co-ordinates. However clicking 'Teleport' doesn't work because the viewer hasn't yet downloaded the landmark association data. It is faster and easier to manually type the location data into the Map than wait for Search to respond.

Second favourite has to be the web profile system spewing an entire screenful of HTML/XML tags in what is obviously an uncontrolled halting state. It is not an uncommon occurance (it's more common in the viewer than using a real browser), but it does wonders for undermining anyones' faith in LL's coding skill (assuming such faith ever exists). If a reputable tech company had a product that came up with such inconsistant and inept results it would be turned into a laughing stock. When was the last time a non-LL web property showed you code instead of a carefully crafted error page?

[Phil Deakins]

I use the LL viewer for me and, for my alt that is simultaneously logged in when I'm logged in, I used to use Phoenix, which did the old style profiles - very quick and reliable. But I've had to change that one to the Firestorm viewer so I only have access to the web-based profiles now, which are utterly unreliable.

[Phil Deakins]

I agree with almost everything you wrote. The one thing that I disagree with is that any actions could cause LL to become a laughing stock. Nothing can do that because, for many things, such as this, LL has been a laughing stock for years, and it still is.

[Freya Mokusei]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

I agree with almost everything you wrote. The one thing that I disagree with is that any actions could cause LL to become a laughing stock. Nothing can do that because, for many things, such as this, LL has been a laughing stock for years, and it still is.

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Mhm! It is good that nothing needs to change, the userbase would hate it.

(To clarify, I said that a reputable company could become a laughing stock by following LL's footsteps.)

[jwenting]

if you're so disappointed in SL, and apparently have been for years, why are you still here, and with multiple accounts?

[Phil Deakins]

Money. That's my biggest reason for having remained in SL for the last 6 years, and it continues to be my biggest reason.

Any more questions?

 

ETA: Just out of interest... Are you happy that the web-based profiles often fail to load?

[Innula Zenovka]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

I use the LL viewer for me and, for my alt that is simultaneously logged in when I'm logged in, I used to use Phoenix, which did the old style profiles - very quick and reliable. But I've had to change that one to the Firestorm viewer so I only have access to the web-based profiles now, which are utterly unreliable.

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This is what I see in Catznip:

[Phil Deakins]

Who are involved with the Catznip viewer? I've search their website but I can find nothing about that, except one little thing that says, "Kitty says".

[Phil Deakins]

That pic of the profile looks excellent, Innula, but I need to know who is involved before I use it. The reason is that, if it is who I think it may be, I won't use the viewer.

On reflection, it would only better than the profile in the LL viewer if it's not web-based data. The LL viewer offers TPing from the profile. It's when the profile doesn't load that the problem exists, and failing to load is common in both the LL and the Firestorm viewers - both web-based data.

[Freya Mokusei]

Kitty Barnett, Trinity Dejavu. (Source)

Unsure if others are connected. Kitty was previously connected to Phoenix/Firestorm IIRC.

[Phil Deakins]

Thank you Freya. The first name is enough - that's who I thought it probably was (from the "Kitty says" bit). I won't be using that viewer

[Innula Zenovka]

It's made by Kitty Barnett and Trinity Dejavu.    Kitty makes RLVa (and also made the spell check that the official viewer uses).   They are both of them ever so nice and helpful.

[Phil Deakins]

I don't know about Trinity, but, for reasons that I won't disclose, I do know a bit about Kitty, and it puts me off using anything of hers. I should say that it's nothing whatsoever to do with viewers, past or present, so it shouldn't put anyone off using their viewer.

[Orca Flotta]

@ Phil: I'm not using LL viewers since 07, I never ever used anything  web based and I had nothing but joy from the oldstyle inworld profiles as delivered from Phoenix, Firestorm and my fave viewer right now; Singularity.  I TP people also directly from IM window and radar.

I know why LL went the way to put everything on the net: it's to be more welcoming for the facetwit crowd. Not a wise move if you ask me, since these people mostly don't "get" SL  at all and can't log out and take their business to "social" sites fast enough. Wasted effort and a step in the wrong direction by LL.

[Phil Deakins]

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Innula Zenovka wrote:

Many TPVs (certainly Catznip) have an option to teleport people direct from the IM window.   It might be easier for the Official Viewer simply to adopt that rather than for LL to try redesigning profiles yet again.

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I just discovered that Firestorm also allows TPing directly from the IM window. Now if I can find an IM windows display that I like, I'll go over to that viewer. I seriously dislike the way it displays the name on one line and the text on the next line, but that may changeable.

[Freya Mokusei]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 I seriously dislike the way it displays the name on one line and the text on the next line, but that may changeable.

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Preferences > Chat >Show Plaintext Chat History (names might be different, this is how to do it in LL viewer)

[Phil Deakins]

I didn't use LL's V2 viewers at all. I gave them a try a couple of times but, for me, they were awful, and I stuck to V1s. But I was very impressed with their V3 - I even started a thread to praise it. And I can happily get along with the current CHUI viewer except for its convoluted method of TPing someone when you're actually in an IM with them. I can even accept the profiles failing to load, because it's no big deal in itself. It's lousy programming/decision-making, but it's not a big deal in itself. It becomes a big deal when need the profile for an actual purpose, and it won't load.

For my alt, I used Phoenix, which used the old, reliable profiles, but with SSA, I've had to change to Firestorm, which now only uses the unreliable web-based profiles.

So, are you saying that Singularity currently uses the old reliable profiles and is SSA compliant? If that's true, I may have to go to that one for my main avatar (me).

[Phil Deakins]

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Freya Mokusei wrote:

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 I seriously dislike the way it displays the name on one line and the text on the next line, but that may changeable.

---

Preferences > Chat >Show Plaintext Chat History (names might be different, this is how to do it in LL viewer)

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I couldn't find anything that looks even similar to that in LL's current viewer but while looking for it in the Firestorm viewer, I did find a setting that does what I want. It's:-

Prefs > Chat > Use V1 style chat headers.

 

Ty, Freya

[Ceka Cianci]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

I'm getting very fed up of the Profiles often not loading at all. There was never anything wrong with the old profiles - they always loaded quickly - but the web-based ones have never been good. When they load, they are very slow to load, and sometimes they simply don't load at all  Why on earth LL continues with them is beyond my comprehension - except that it's LL that has idiots for decision-makers.

Usually, it's no big deal when a profile fails to load but there are times when it does matter. One of them is when you want to TP someone you are in an IM with. The obvious thing would be to right-click the name and select 'teleport' from the options. But teleport isn't an option, so you have to select to view the profile instead and teleport the person from there. If the profile won't load, as often happens, you're reduced to doing a search for the person and taking it from there. Bloody ridiculous design.

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i've never liked the web based ones from the start..

i really thought the old ones were just fine..

now it's delay and if you move it on your screen..it's reload time..

[Vania Chaplin]

Phil, in Firestorm:

For profiles:
Preferences >> General

In the right corner: "Extras", disable "Use web profilesby default"

This way you will see the old style profiles. I don't know in other viewers.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

For my alt, I used Phoenix, which used the old, reliable profiles, but with SSA, I've had to change to Firestorm, which now only uses the unreliable web-based profiles.

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Firestorm doesn't just have web-based profiles.  In Preferences/General under Extras, uncheck "Use web profiles by default".  Then profiles will look like this...

...Dres

ETA: I should have known that by the time I took the pic, edited it and posted it, someone would have beat me to it... lol.

[Qie Niangao]

Not sure the current status of which viewers are eligible for discussion, but in the LL "CHUI" viewers, the "Compact view" is set in the CHUI "CONVERSATIONS" window itself, in the chat pane's pulldown settings. 

Teleporting a chatter is also supported directly from a right-click, but using the names listed in the other, left-side pane (which I usually leave collapsed, personally).  I have no idea why that names list has the full context pulldown for avatars, but there's such an abbreviated one for the names as they appear in the chat pane, nor can I fathom how they ever got to be treated as distinct contexts in the first place, thus requiring separate code be written and maintained.

[Phil Deakins]

@ Vania and Dresden:

Thank you both. I now have Firestorm providing reliable profiles