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A Conversation with Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg


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Is joining the continents with navigable water being considered?

Will the lab offer another round of private region grandfathering?

Will the tier on homesteads and full regions come down to match the reduction in mainland prices?

Right now the price of a homestead is US$75 for 750 LI and a Grandfathered Homstead is US$95 for 5000 LI. Will the relatively high price of a homestead be brought into line so estates can have tracts of water at a decent cost?

There is still a need for a continuous mole or gopher team under the guidance of a Linden. Will you ever consider re-implementing an active improvement team to undertake tasks like rebuilding roads, beautifying abandoned land with linden trees, fixing faults in ROWs, improving sailing waters and passages?

Is there a time-frame on Experiences being grid wide?

Can we have a spin dial in the region-control tab that allows us to set the minimum number of days an avatar needs to be, they getting a simple "You cannot access this region" message rather than the current hack -- TP in, be age orbed out, cry and drama in IM to the orbs owner.

Will the harsh edges on the unfinished continents ever be finished even if one sim wide and openspace? Maybe consider reducing the costs and requirements for private estate owners to attach to those edges on Zindra and others. US$500 a year and 10 regions really needs revision.

Blake Sea duplication off Zindra, a sizable number of people would enjoy sailing without G rated restrictions on mainland waters. (Fruit islands are restrictive in their covenant to prevent outsiders)

Governance are widely seen as ineffectual, opaque, and highly variable in their application of the rules. I myself have been suspended for 3 days for erecting a prim wall on my own land. Will anything be done to improve their performance especially in acting on ARs to remove known griefers who just keep coming back, and a better appeals process for those wrongly convicted?

Why was concierge reduced to only USA business hours? Estate owners pay thousands each month yet have no support if they are not American. If our region fails to return from a reboot or suffers serious issues we need to wait 24 hours or more. Will the Lab work to re-instate support for estate owners in Europe, Asia, Australia - the entire world outside the USA.

Thanks :)

Edited by Callum Meriman
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Where do Linden Labs stand in the way Adult content is viewed? for the last 5 years I and my partner Serjourn Daxter have tried to contact the adult liaison member of Linden and never received a reply. so my question is; what is the future of adult content in Second Life?

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Going forward what are Linden Lab's plans to bring new users into the fold and to reincentivize past users to return ?

Keeping in mind that user evangelism drove a lot of SL's growth, what would you like the community to do in this regard, or to put it another way; How can we help ?

Have you read Snow Crash ?

Do you believe that the user perception of Second Life as a true metaverse still holds true ?

Is there room for licenced content in Second Life beyond Brand_X simply doing it themselves as has been attempted previously, and would the Lab be interested in assisting with or procuring such licences and bring wide adoption of real world pop culture content to Second Life - either on behalf of limited merchants or as a grid wide free for all ? (example, LL helps negotiate a licence for Brand_X to be sold in SL by Creator_Y, or LL negotiates a licence to allow Brand_X content in Second Life on behalf of all residents, perhaps in a time limited way). (As individuals operating independently, residents can't even talk to the relevant people).

Can a system for in world resident run Live help be brought back ? We understand that it never appeared to help the numbers and that there were problems, but those of us who were helped and those who did contribute time and knowledge found the experience and involvement meaningful, if for no other reason that to provide some structured purpose and engagement. 

What is the future of the Lab's commitment to open source development ? Will we ever see a broader commitment that we currently do ?

If you could spend an afternoon being shown around by a resident, what would you like to see ?

What is the possibility of porting Sansar technology back to Second Life ? (Avatar dressing and clothing adjustment for example)

How do you plan to reconcile the high hardware demands Second Life presents with the majority of users on mid range hardware & integrated graphics ?

Is it said that some people dance, and some do not. Do you ?

Have you read Ready Player One (the book, not the film). How do you compare the Oasis as a social and educational space to Second Life ? (ignoring the obvious VR tech-porn aspects).

Second Life users often struggle to find purpose, a blank page with near infinite possibility is intimidating, is there anything the Lab could or should be doing to direct ?

What are the Lab's short, medium and long term aspirations for Second Life ?

How do you address the perception that Second Life is just for 'weird pixel sex' ?

What content are you surprised hasn't been created in Second Life ?

Edited by CoffeeDujour
typos...
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When will there be proper tools for in-world main grid testing of all types of created content without having to pay "trial and error" fees or use the beta grid? So far, I've only seen temp upload capability for some content type, but not all types. Previews of uploaded stuff just doesn't cut it. It helps to test creations in-world in relation to other things you own or around you that is on the main grid. Beta grid really should just be for development/new feature testing, not for testing whether your design works well on some mesh body.

Edited by Kurshie Muromachi
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9 hours ago, Richardus Raymaker said:
  1. Are there plans to make secondlife so that we get a more stable higher framerate

I can answer this but I'll just send a PM so as to not derail the thread.

As for questions, I'd also like to know when the "EEP" Windlight parcel/scripting features will be released.

I'd also like to know if LL is moving forward with VRAM management tools, such as inspecting the VRAM use of objects, attachments and avatars, and derendering avatars with excessive VRAM use like the current jelly doll feature.

 

Edited by Penny Patton
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Would love to know how it can be justified to make huge increases to cash out, going from 1dollar a few years ago, to 10, then to a 25 max, then a percentage increase and no max so from 25 it’s now 250 Usd?

If any any other business did that, they’d go out of business and what is frustrating for content creators is we have no way as your customers to speak to someone about these drastic increases, how it affects us, etc. 

If we raised our prices from 10L to 25 the following year to 250L we’d be out of business. 

Many creators have felt so discouraged about this and felt there is no one to speak to about these huge increases. And in the last announcement about all the new things, it was mentioned it would be going up again! 

For those who try to make a living these increases are like getting huge pay cuts with no benefits. We have staff we pay and many costs to run a business in SL and making it harder for us will make it harder for people to have incentives to create in sl which will lower revenues for sl.

It seems like something is way off. And this is discouraging because if we all were to raise prices on our customers to absorb our losses, then people would not be able to buy as much as they do now. 

Can you please reconsider the last huge increase with no cap, and please give us a place we can bring our concerns as your customers? Like we provide for our customers inworld? 

I don’t know a business that could stay in business if they did this. 

Thank you you in advance for your consideration. 

Edited by Callie Cline
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Is there any chance of a new third-person mouselook control scheme?

Perhaps allowing us to enter third-person mouselook by clicking the back of our avatar heads and holding for 5 seconds to lock it in place so we don't have to hold the left mouse button at all times to use this feature.

Of course, switching to and from TPS mouselook with a key would be great as well. As would being able to control the right-click menu and activate objects by left-clicking what is under a crosshair.

Of course, these requests are secondary to the actual control scheme change and are really more of just icing on the cake than anything.

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  1. How many "real users" (avatars who could answer a CAPTCHA if asked)  does SL really have on line at daily peak?
  2. Does LL have any serious plans to grow that number? The plans for 2018 seem unambitious.
  3. SL is far below modern video game standards in terms of frame rate, image quality, and movement control. What's the plan to get up there, to at least the level of High Fidelity or SineSpace.
  4. What's the plan for mobile?
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Dear Ebbe.

First off, thank you for your efforts to update Second Life and the Linden Lab services. Also I am very pleased with the wind of openness that comes from the Lab.

In this time of privacy abuse it needs to be asked. What is Linden Lab it's position towards privacy and, more specific, the European laws that reign privacy?

Linden Lab uses various web based providers, the forums, wiki, jira, Amazon to name a few. Do the providers follow the same rules and standards? Why are visitors to those websites being tracked by Google and other snoopers? Does Google know my Username + RL name + my SL marketplace purchases? Why? And what can it do with that?

I am using Second Life as being a paid provider so I can expect an experience without (much) advertising and tracking.

Are our in-world interactions stored? If so, what duration?

Who has access to my data? Does that include government agencies? What is the USB key policy on leaching data?

Thank you for replying,

-Vick

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41 minutes ago, Vick Forcella said:

Dear Ebbe.

First off, thank you for your efforts to update Second Life and the Linden Lab services. Also I am very pleased with the wind of openness that comes from the Lab.

In this time of privacy abuse it needs to be asked. What is Linden Lab it's position towards privacy and, more specific, the European laws that reign privacy?

Linden Lab uses various web based providers, the forums, wiki, jira, Amazon to name a few. Do the providers follow the same rules and standards? Why are visitors to those websites being tracked by Google and other snoopers? Does Google know my Username + RL name + my SL marketplace purchases? Why? And what can it do with that?

I am using Second Life as being a paid provider so I can expect an experience without (much) advertising and tracking.

Are our in-world interactions stored? If so, what duration?

Who has access to my data? Does that include government agencies? What is the USB key policy on leaching data?

Thank you for replying,

-Vick

There is some info here, but I second these questions on the European law part. 

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The announced Town Hall events should not be held just for Second Life's 15th birthday. In 2015/2016, Linden Lab participated in several Lab Chat meetings (videos / blog). That was interesting and informative for all residents.

Is it possible that Linden Lab will participate again in regular Lab Chat Sessions after the announced SL15B Town Hall meetings?

One or two events per year would be enough.

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Please continue to support Firestorm having a viable Linux viewer, it doesn't matter to me that you don't have one, but I must have RLV for my wardrobe management.  If Linux viewers disappear, I have to too (and my tier).

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I understand the shift from a land based economy to a sales based economy. I even accept that raising fees is justifiable as long as land costs continue to go down.  If people have to spend less on land they will shop more. That's good for business. But it also means that since the cost of overhead will rise then my prices and other merchants prices must also rise to cover the cost of doing business. This is simple economy 101. 

The big issue for me now is how are you going to improve the tools for merchants? My bare minimum suggestions are:

1. In Sansar, we have a redelivery button so that any customer can have purchases redelivered. We absolutely MUST have that here in SL.

2. We need tools that make it easy to have flash sales in our MP stores.

3. Finally, we need a MP tool to reward our customers for purchases with store credits and a way to use those credits when making MP purchases.

My current vendor system, which just announced it's retirement from the grid, does all of these for me. But why should I have to buy a vendor system to do this for my MP store? If I'm going to be paying more for your services then I should be given the tools to make the money to pay your fees. I don't like the idea of being at the mercy of another merchant who can pull the system out from under my feet again. 

I also would like to see a LL vendor system in world, but I realize that's a pipe dream as it would take sales away from our current vendor merchants.

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First let me say thank you for developing Second Life. As someone who is disabled in RL, SL is where I come to do many of the things that I can no longer physically do in RL, including gardening, breeding cats, going to classes, discussions and events, and having a real and full social life. I'm also a smaller merchant on SL, primarily selling breedables, and use the income to help pay for very basic needs from toilet paper or laundry detergent to co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions. There are many disabled people who use SL, and I am certainly not the only one who uses the L$ we sometimes earn to do this.

Obviously, SL gets revenue from two main streams: 1) the sale of, and use fees (tier) paid for, land & 2) the fees incurred when buying and selling lindens, as well as the fees sellers incur when selling on the marketplace.  Contrary to what many think, very few people make a living here, and some of them may be the ones who own large land rental companies and already get their land from LL at a discount. 

- How do you justify shifting the costs of SL further onto merchants, such as myself, who my depend on these revenues in our first lives, through increased Marketplace and Linden Exchange fees while at the same time planning to reduce the fees associated with land ownership? 

(NOTE: I do also own land, which is on the Mainland.)

- As a smaller merchant, I am often repeatedly hit when there are minimum fees in places, such as Paypal's current $3 min. fee. Can you guarantee us that any fee increases will not be recessive (ie. guarantee that smaller sellers won't pay a higher percentage rate due to minimums or scaling)?

- Worries regarding Sansar and the inability to transfer our inventory to a new platform have negatively impacted the sales of breedables and many other items on SL, especially collectibles. I have no interest in 3D technology (I have loss of visual acuity in one eye and can't use it regardless of how affordable it becomes) or a world that is basically a collection of museums. The beauty of SL is that we can create our own lives and our own experiences... hold a job, have a family, design our own home, etc. What can you do to assure us that SL, or a similar but upgraded platform to which we could transfer everything, will be in existence three years from now? Five years from now?

Thanks so much, for your time, and for giving me my life back,

Lady Magick

 

RE: 

On 4/13/2018 at 12:08 PM, KT Kingsley said:

How do you sustain a business model in which users don't pay for your service?

&

20 hours ago, ChinRey said:

Linden Lab has announced an upgrade of the Marketplace and increases in the Mp and LindeX fees. Is the MP upgrade intended to increase the total revenue enough to compensate for the higher fees or will the merchants have to expect lower net income?

 

Edited by MsMagick
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5 hours ago, anna2358 said:

Please continue to support Firestorm having a viable Linux viewer, it doesn't matter to me that you don't have one, but I must have RLV for my wardrobe management.  If Linux viewers disappear, I have to too (and my tier).

You don't need to worry about this.
Firestorm already fixed the problems with the Linux viewer after the Alex Ivy merge - it now builds & runs with working media.
The beta testers will be getting a Linux viewer soon to bang on.
If you self compile, you can already roll your own.

Repo: http://hg.phoenixviewer.com/phoenix-firestorm-lgpl/
Compile instructions:
64bit Ubuntu
64bit Debian Stretch

If don't self compile, you can join the FS beta testers to get access to the Linux builds soon.  :)

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Dear Ebbe Altberg,

Thank you for taking input from Second Life users, I hope Linden Lab will gain insight from Second Life users wishes and incorporate the good ideas and not least wanted requests to make Second Life better. My questions to the Town Hall Event:

  • A basic read/write persistent storage database able to handle the different SL variable types and read/write note cards. This could be offered as a paid annual service and I am quite sure many creators would pay given the benefits; it would provide selling their products.
  • Are there any plans to update the scripting language LSL, like include case-statement and incorporate sound and other missing important functions in LlSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast. Content creation is what Second Life is about and programming tools to make it better, faster would ensure this important aspect.
  • Second Life creation is about learning by doing – many did/do not understand the impact of high resolution textures like 1024x512 – and an extension to Builder Tools like reduce texture from 1024x512 to 512x256 etc. while keeping the original UUID, would be an easy way to reduce textures and enhance the general speed/load of SIMs.
  • Could we have longer sound files? Say 30-60 seconds. By using modern compressing like MP4, this would not increase sound files substantial and modern computers handles decompression on user side without problems.
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Greetings,

    I was very pleased to learn of the news of expanding the mainland holding to 1024, I myself do not own on mainland, and quite frankly, not many parcels are very pleasing due to location and neighbors with less that desired tastes which is why I am not so eager to purchase one to add to my allowed total. I do , however, own a Linden Home and am quite pleased as I have had it for many years now. My question is, is there a plan and timeframe in place to convert the LL lands to accommodate the 1024 increase over the 512?

 

Thank you.

 

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