Releases under the Fog of War

[PrudenceAnton]

What does Fog of War mean? The uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.  The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.

So what does this terminology have to do with Second Life's new Linden homes releases?

The forums are filled with posts from members giving their thoughts, opinions or frustrations on the lack of available new Linden homes, or their inability to land one of these high demand homes.

The servers are even straining at the times that residents are guessing when Patch Linden will release them, straining the performance of the web page as the masses run to their Auto Refresh and stare in bewilderment, awaiting their special golden ticket to a new Linden home.

Is this really causing an issue on Linden Labs page? Well, some of us saw this pop up a few times during the waiting time for today's release.  Mind you, we have not seen this before (though others may have).

The servers did remain stable enough and when the release came, a new lot of lucky residents happily got their new Linden homes.  And congratulations to each of them.

The downside to this, is the handful (not all) of residents that again, missed out on their opportunity and sadly begrudge the new home owners.  They rant in the group chats of how unfair this is, some come and continue their rant on the forum pages.  Is it fair they did not get their homes when they want them? Well, I can't answer that, obviously Linden Labs does not have enough new homes for all premium residents craving ownership in a beautiful new community, at this time.

Probably what is more worrisome, is with each single region release, the bitterness gets more intense as does the demand and pressure on Linden Labs server performance.  Is there a solution to this? Is there a means to calm the masses, especially the ones swallowing that bitter pill of disappointment?  Patch Linden and the Moles are hard at work and certainly don't deserve some of the nasty criticism.

So what solution can there be to relieve those hard at work as they scurry to deliver more homes each week?  Its troublesome to see large groups of people rushing into the region they think will be the next to be released. This does cause a strain on the region, especially if it is the one to be released that day.  And we all have peppered Patch Linden with hundreds of questions in group chat about what he's doing, is there a release today, when will it be, will there be houseboat, soon, sooner, sooner enough?  Even I have hummed in my own curious questions to Patch.  He remains ever polite and gives us little teases of hints but keeps it a mystery.  For myself, I find it very entertaining. But for others, who don't get their homes after eagerly waiting, they aren't so nice. (We'll leave it politely at that)

An idea. A solution.  It might be best for Patch Linden to maybe consider doing a Fog of War region release in the future. Residents know that there will be weekly releases, but I'd suggest to give no further information than that.  Not the day of the week, not the time, no hints of a pending region release.  The disappointment for some of these residents is rather shocking. Some getting virtually ill, or refusing to go into work, cancelling appointments and trips.  These are things we have seen mentioned in group chats or on the forums.  To alleviate the pressure for all, those working to get new Linden homes out and those premium members trying to get their new Linden home; less might be more.  Give them the Fog of War.  This could alleviate strain on the community in general. The Lindens. The Moles. The Servers. The home page. Us as a community. Keeping all in the fog.

Patch and the Moles can still give us their warm, entertaining chats, cause we love those; but witnessing the disappointment and anger, day in and day out, has to put a strain on the community for all involved.   

OP is only offering these thoughts for insight. It is not a complaint or criticism, and perhaps not a welcomed solution, for what is functioning now to release new Linden homes to premium members. 

Edited July 11, 2019 by PrudenceAnton

[Fionalein]

While generally a good idea some people again will not be happy with it. Worse yet - it could lead to communities of molespotters who just wait for telltale signs of new regions going online....

[LittleMe Jewell]

Just now, Fionalein said:

some people again will not be happy with it

Absolute guarantee that no matter what LL does, "some people" will not be happy with it.  We all know that you cannot please everyone.

[PrudenceAnton]

Just now, LittleMe Jewell said:

Absolute guarantee that no matter what LL does, "some people" will not be happy with it.  We all know that you cannot please everyone.

You are so right on that Jewell. We can't please all the people.  I suppose its the distress at witnessing those that begrudge others luck, or those working diligently to get the releases out as quickly as they can.  But it could possibly be a solution to slow down the strain on their servers when premium members are less sure when a pending region release is coming. Instead of several thousand hitting that refresh over and over, it might drop the traffic down some.

[Seba Serpente]

Lets not forget that some are being paid and some are the one paying. Naturally one will suffer more than the other.

[Fionalein]

2 minutes ago, PrudenceAnton said:

Instead of several thousand hitting that refresh over and over, it might drop the traffic down some.

Patch just made clear this won't work anymore anyways

[Polenth Yue]

I think telling people less would be what people need, even if it's not what they want. The greatest aggression in the groups comes after one of the announced releases. Which has a darkly funny side, as the people who immediately come to the groups to be abusive will therefore miss any houses that are immediately abandoned, but I don't suppose they thought of that.

Anyway, the point being that I do think it'd reduce the outright abuse and harassment. People won't be happy about not knowing, but I'd rather "I'm grumpy I don't know what's happening!" over someone harassing everyone who got a house for an hour.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Polenth Yue

[PrudenceAnton]

Just now, Fionalein said:

Patch just made clear this won't work anymore anyways

Yes, I read that it'll give a time out, but with less having a more certain idea when a region release is coming, the traffic would hit on that page less and thus, the time out warning page would not pop up as often for some. The Auto Refresh will still work, but when masses are using it, some will get a time out message page occasionally to slow the server strain down.

[Marisa Starbrook]

4 minutes ago, PrudenceAnton said:

What does Fog of War mean? The uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.  The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.

An idea. A solution.  It might be best for Patch Linden to maybe consider doing a Fog of War region release in the future. Residents know that there will be weekly releases, but I'd suggest to give no further information than that.  Not the day of the week, not the time, no hints of a pending region release.  The disappointment for some of these residents is rather shocking.

I had wondered why Patch had not stuck with his original decision to not announce when the region releases would occur. My assumption was that he wanted to keep the residents informed of the progress. Unfortunately it seemed to whip up a frenzy of auto-refreshing instead. I never got the error message, even after his last announcement of the change. Maybe my connection is slower than I thought. 

[CynicismSells]

I'm just surprised to see the small-and-slow roll outs of houses as opposed to a grand-scale release. Don't get me wrong... I love that homes were finally getting an update, and it prompted me to finally go premium. I'm happy to wait for my perfect slice of SL...

While most people I think are mature to accept that "it is what it is", it's interesting to see the sociological effects. Instead of fostering a sense of community building, the houses are putting fissures in the SL community, i.e. haves and have-nots, which in today's sociopolitical climate... well.. lets just say it's been interesting...

And it'll be more interesting to see what happens should they need to add an additional continent. Will it be east belli vs. west belli?? Will newer communities created thrive over the ones who got their house early? Such a cool experiment...

[PrudenceAnton]

1 minute ago, LuLu Starbrook said:

I had wondered why Patch had not stuck with his original decision to not announce when the region releases would occur. My assumption was that he wanted to keep the residents informed of the progress. Unfortunately it seemed to whip up a frenzy of auto-refreshing instead. I never got the error message, even after his last announcement of the change. Maybe my connection is slower than I thought. 

Patch is no longer revealing which region will be released that day, due to many rushing into the region before its release and causing a huge strain for it to rez in after its restarted and released. He has been giving hints of a pending region release still in group chats though and that drums up the traffic on the server as people use the Auto Refresh plug ins.  So now they'll get a time out message at times to slow the strain on said severs so they can continue to function.

[Brat Spicy]

I actually think the "fog" will make all worse, as we already seeying. When there were just big releases, everyone atleast knew when (because announced in forum) and when you didn't got a house, well on to the next batch.

Then we got the 3 times a week, had to guess timing at first. Then the 7 - 2 frame was added. Then (clearly nobody's fault) a release was missed due sickness of a key person in the release. Then we had holiday. Then there was a "suprise" release on tuesday...  Also, the info topic stays quiet, but yet there are things mentioned in groups by Patch inworld. This causes confusion and frustration.

My opinion is that not knowing how or what or when is the biggest issue and causes people to stress out on all, including 24/7 refreshing.

 

[Beth Macbain]

I think it's a wonderful idea. Oddly timed releases done when they wish to do them. 

As to your other points, thank you. You said it much more eloquently that I could have in the state of rage I've been in. 

For years, people have craved more interaction with the Lindens and Moles. 

We finally had that... finally. 

How much fun were those first few weeks? We had Lindens and Moles all over the place, not just building but also seeing and being a part of the community that THEY created. Patch was everywhere. The goofiness here on the forums, the inworld groups, the exchanging of ideas, the excitement and laughter. It was amazing and magical.

Now? Yeah, that's mostly gone. Rarely are they spotted here on the forums anymore and it's usually when one of them has had enough of the abuse and defended themselves, and then they're gone again. We don't see them just hanging around Bellisseria. Patch got fed up enough today to leave one of the community groups today. He'd already left the other group's Discord. 

They're retreating again, and is it any wonder?

I want it to go back to how it was.

[Quartz Mole]

4 minutes ago, Fionalein said:

While generally a good idea some people again will not be happy with it. Worse yet - it could lead to communities of molespotters who just wait for telltale signs of new regions going online....

The molespotters would be disappointed -- I'm probably the last of the Moles to be actively involved in a release of additional house/houseboat regions and all I know is that, after I'm finished and my work has been checked then, under normal circumstances, they'll be passed over to another LL department who will, in turn, coordinate with two (I think) other departments and we'll see the regions go live a few days after that.

So if you're watching our movements in the hope of gleaning extra information, I'm sorry but we can't help you, even inadvertently.     We just don't know that kind of thing because no one does until a lot nearer the time, since there are a lot of things to coordinate before a release can happen.  

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

50 minutes ago, Fionalein said:

53 minutes ago, PrudenceAnton said:

Instead of several thousand hitting that refresh over and over, it might drop the traffic down some.

Patch just made clear this won't work anymore anyways

He said the auto-refresh won't work anymore.  People manually refreshing over and over still works - because they can't do it as fast as a program.  And they want people to be able to refresh the page.

I was actually able to manually refresh the page 15 times fairly quickly -- just not as fast as an auto-refresher would.

Edited July 11, 2019 by LittleMe Jewell

[LittleMe Jewell]

48 minutes ago, PrudenceAnton said:

Yes, I read that it'll give a time out, but with less having a more certain idea when a region release is coming, the traffic would hit on that page less and thus, the time out warning page would not pop up as often for some. The Auto Refresh will still work, but when masses are using it, some will get a time out message page occasionally to slow the server strain down.

I don't think the auto-refresh will work unless the person sets the refresh rate much slower than previously - sometime more like what a human would do.

[LittleMe Jewell]

40 minutes ago, CynicismSells said:

I'm just surprised to see the small-and-slow roll outs of houses as opposed to a grand-scale release.

Because after the first two large releases, the forums were flooded with folks complaining like mad and DEMANDING that LL release the homes faster, preferably as they finish them.

[Sammy Huntsman]

The reason why you are seeing that, is they made it so you can't use plugins to auto refresh. It was overloading their servers, and slowing them down or something. Look people just need to calm down, and understand that a home will be there for you. You just gotta be patient, and wait your turn. No need to overload the servers, because you want a house now.

[PrudenceAnton]

8 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

He said the auto-refresh won't work anymore.  People manually refreshing over and over still works - because they can't do it as fast as a program.  And they want people to be able to refresh the page.

 We know that some people are using a plug-in or a browser feature to reload the home selection page, and as much as we admire the tenacity, we need to pump the brakes a bit on that traffic.  Pretty soon you will start to see an error page if you have your browser set to continuously refresh those pages.  No need to fear!  The website is still functional.  It’s just to give our servers a little breather.  You will be able to resume activity again after the timeout period is over. - Patch Linden

The Auto Refresh still works. I'm using it now and have had 2 hits on Traditional houses, that I missed out on due to lack of attention.  Its when traffic gets heavy on that server page that you might get a time out page to slow down the traffic. i.e. during times when region releases are pending and the traffic rate is high.

Note: If you are still using an Auto Refresh, I'd suggest to reduce the refreshing time lower to avoid the time out page.

Edited July 11, 2019 by PrudenceAnton

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

1 minute ago, PrudenceAnton said:

 We know that some people are using a plug-in or a browser feature to reload the home selection page, and as much as we admire the tenacity, we need to pump the brakes a bit on that traffic.  Pretty soon you will start to see an error page if you have your browser set to continuously refresh those pages.  No need to fear!  The website is still functional.  It’s just to give our servers a little breather.  You will be able to resume activity again after the timeout period is over.

The Auto Refresh still works. I'm using it now and have had 2 hits on Traditional houses, that I missed out on due to lack of attention.  Its when traffic gets heavy on that server page that you might get a time out page to slow down the traffic. i.e. during times when region releases are pending and the traffic rate is high.

It reads to me like the new "brakes" are not in service quite yet.

[PrudenceAnton]

3 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

It reads to me like the new "brakes" are not in service quite yet.

Actually they are. We got that message page Patch was talking about earlier today a few times. This happened during the period prior to the region release today and its the first time we ever saw this message before on that page. Now, its no longer coming up, due to lower traffic monitoring that page. (I could be wrong here, too! just saying.)

Edited July 11, 2019 by PrudenceAnton

[Sammy Huntsman]

Just now, PrudenceAnton said:

Actually they are. We got that message page Patch was talking about earlier today a few times.

Well stop using an auto refresh plugin, and you won't see this. There, problem solved.

[Annie Nova]

53 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

I think it's a wonderful idea. Oddly timed releases done when they wish to do them. 

As to your other points, thank you. You said it much more eloquently that I could have in the state of rage I've been in. 

For years, people have craved more interaction with the Lindens and Moles. 

We finally had that... finally. 

How much fun were those first few weeks? We had Lindens and Moles all over the place, not just building but also seeing and being a part of the community that THEY created. Patch was everywhere. The goofiness here on the forums, the inworld groups, the exchanging of ideas, the excitement and laughter. It was amazing and magical.

Now? Yeah, that's mostly gone. Rarely are they spotted here on the forums anymore and it's usually when one of them has had enough of the abuse and defended themselves, and then they're gone again. We don't see them just hanging around Bellisseria. Patch got fed up enough today to leave one of the community groups today. He'd already left the other group's Discord. 

They're retreating again, and is it any wonder?

I want it to go back to how it was.

Me too Beth. I was in that group at the time he left it and it made me heartsick, that it had come to that. It's damned if you do and damned if you don't, it's a no win situation with the whining and complaining, from people who did not get a house, threats of lawsuits were being hurled in another group by yet another special snowflake. Is it any wonder he got fed up? There was a time when the Lindens weren't even allowed to communicate with the residents and that was a horrible time for everyone involved. Now they are engaging more and more which is a wonderful thing, indeed. But, IF the whiners, threateners (is that even a word?) anyway....continue with the negativity I fear it could go back to that way again, and who could blame the Lindens? Certainly not me. The people you can't please will be to blame......just my two lindens worth....

[Seba Serpente]

It does seems to me that backing up/delay is actually on the office Lindens and not on the Mole team. There is quite a few regions that do seem ready to go, and you barely see one office Linden popping up from time to time to get the next steps done. A lot of resources being put on the moles but the whole work line doesnt seems well ballance to match the speed the Moles are doing on the regions.

[Annie Nova]

Just now, Seba Serpente said:

It does seems to me that backing up/delay is actually on the office Lindens and not on the Mole team. There is quite a few regions that do seem ready to go, and you barely see one office Linden popping up from time to time to get the next steps done. A lot of resources being put on the moles but the whole work line doesnt seems well ballance to match the speed the Moles are doing on the regions.

Just because you don't see Lindens there, doesn't mean they haven't been there. You just haven't caught them yet.