During the pandemic, should Linden Lab.....

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

we'r still waiting for the pony!

Dakota keeps claiming it is "in the mail"

[Alwin Alcott]

5 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

 "in the mail"

[bigmoe Whitfield]

13 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Cant see any form of reduction in price happening as LL just are to slow and just don't know how to market Second Life anymore. Only possible way this could be done is for maybe businesses that register can purchase at a discounted rate for the next 6months so as they can see the benefit for meetings etc. But even that will not happen.

Even better would be for those businesses to be able to register for a region that is already built with offices and meeting rooms for those businesses to use in this time.

Why would it be more expensive? People have been asking for years for this and as far as I am aware homesteads are far cheaper to run that full regions. Considering there continues to be a decline in regions for many years, the hardware is still there to handle that and I would assume that could pick up any slack. Also hosting regions on the cloud (if they get a move on with doing so - should have been done a while ago IMHO) would be a benefit but the slowness of LL have once again stung them in the butt.

Where this time is a prime time for Linden Lab to get a huge marketing boost and possibly bring back the 2006 hype for second life with its vast improvements over the years as a showcase to businesses and users. I'm going to put my hat on the table and say that I'll eat it if LL actually manage to market this time properly or reduce tier, offer regions etc.

Hardware costs,  it requires more hardware,  LL is like most tech companies and not going to be sitting on mountains of hardware.    it costs real money and quite a bit of it to buy hardware even in bulk and than you need staff to go to the data center,  load the os and other items and configure it, then you are paying to power, backbone connections , ectect.  

basically to do it, they would need to be charging the same amounts the charge for a full sim.

[BelindaN]

I think we're lucky to have what we have, especially as things are in RL.

SL has become a panic room, where I can come to de-stress. I'm happy that SL continues in these difficult times. Just as it is......

[ItHadToComeToThis]

11 hours ago, kali Wylder said:

The idea of using a natural disaster, like the  pandemic, to promote a business, even one we love, like SL, is abhorrent and really not a good idea at all.  I thought we'd already agreed on that in a similar thread recently.

Well. You are assuming there that the idea comes from a nefarious (intended or otherwise) standpoint. It doesn’t, SL could be very helpful for some of those people who are self isolating and have no body else. And there is no harm in that in putting in the effort to retain those users who might ultimately sign up. Plus, there are benefits for those of us who are already In world but on lockdown. Not everyone is being paid by a business for their time at home. Some are on government assistance and others savings. Lowering the costs of things for a couple of months, especially given they have now ton of extra money after the layoffs and closure of sansar would be beneficial all round.

[Beth Macbain]

2 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Lowering the costs of things for a couple of months, especially given they have now ton of extra money after the layoffs and closure of sansar would be beneficial all round.

I'm not sure that they have tons of extra money... and honestly, if they do, I would much rather they invest that into themselves than cut prices on anything. 

Companies are going to go under because of this freaking mess, even with whatever stimulus becomes available. I don't want LL to be one of them. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

13 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Well. You are assuming there that the idea comes from a nefarious (intended or otherwise) standpoint. It doesn’t, SL could be very helpful for some of those people who are self isolating and have no body else. And there is no harm in that in putting in the effort to retain those users who might ultimately sign up. Plus, there are benefits for those of us who are already In world but on lockdown. Not everyone is being paid by a business for their time at home. Some are on government assistance and others savings. Lowering the costs of things for a couple of months, especially given they have now ton of extra money after the layoffs and closure of sansar would be beneficial all round.

The issue for me, and (although I don't wish to speak for her), possibly for Kali too, is the way in which this is couched in the OP.

I think we can all agree that SL offers real benefits for people in this time of "social distancing" and isolation -- particularly those who are among the most vulnerable, or whose lack of mobility may leave them feeling particularly alone these days. And had the OP taken this particular line, I don't think there would have been many objections. I'd actually like to see us promoting SL that way -- but not necessarily LL itself doing so.

Better retention rates, better pricing (if at all feasible, which I mostly doubt), and so on are also all things we'd all like to see.

But it's all about context, no? And the OP really does sound as though it's approaching this from the perspective of "marketing" (you explicitly mention "adverts" in your first paragraph, and suggest that LL could be doing more to "entice" users). And that's just kind of distasteful.

I do not assume nefarious intent here, at all -- although it's also true that none of us, even if we don't necessarily stand to benefit financially from a resurgent SL, are exactly "disinterested" with regard to the platform. Again, though . . . context is all, and approaching this as a marketing opportunity rather than as an affordance that can help people in these times seems inappropriate to some of us at least.

[Drayke Newall]

14 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

Hardware costs,  it requires more hardware,  LL is like most tech companies and not going to be sitting on mountains of hardware.    it costs real money and quite a bit of it to buy hardware even in bulk and than you need staff to go to the data center,  load the os and other items and configure it, then you are paying to power, backbone connections , ectect.  

basically to do it, they would need to be charging the same amounts the charge for a full sim.

Its called contingency of which most tech companies have built within their business strategies. If what you say is true and that LL don't have the extra hardware to pick up any potential increase in regions over a short period of time, then that would be one massive business failure on LL behalf. Any business always (or at least should) allow for contingency within their business plan. If they haven't done this then it has to make you wonder just what LL spend their money on.

You say most tech companies don't sit on hardware for periods of time, implying that they upgrade it once they get real close to their maximum? Then how come we have seen over the course of a few weeks these same tech companies offering streaming services for free. Even Discord who is a relative small tech player in the grand scheme of things have enough capacity to offer out to all schools a 50 user count stream per channel for free over this time.

So no, you are incorrect. LL's bad planning in not having contingency is not like most tech companies.

13 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

But it's all about context, no? And the OP really does sound as though it's approaching this from the perspective of "marketing" (you explicitly mention "adverts" in your first paragraph, and suggest that LL could be doing more to "entice" users). And that's just kind of distasteful.

No, that is not distasteful. It is business and marketing and affordance in business run hand in hand. How can a business offer help to others if those people don't know that a business exists of offers relevant services? To get the word out there they have to MARKET there services, what they can offer, etc. and the only way to do this is though advertisement or news articles, or press releases etc. A business is all about looking for potential increases in revenue or users or showcasing what they can offer people/businesses and whilst yes, they should offer help in ways they can during this time, it is in a business best interest that by offering that help they also can help their own business in the process.

Whilst you might consider it distasteful, most businesses wouldn't and I think you would be surprised at what businesses are marketing tastefully at this time, especially tech companies that offer some form of virtual potential. Sure they are offering their services to help but, you clearly don't understand business practices from a good CEO or CMO perspective if you don't see the underlying rubbing of hands together with glee at the prospect of more money or users by them showcasing what they can offer all the while having an outward look of charity. There is even a specific phrase for it, it is called 'Public Relations' and the internet is also awash with articles on how you can market during this time by offering services. https://www.business2community.com/public-relations/pr-and-marketing-during-covid-19-what-you-need-to-know-02294307 Point 2, 5, 6 and 8 apply to LL and Second Life Service's and their Marketing potential and how to stay relevant.

Also for example:

1. Instagram has launched a co-watching feature, enabling people to view the making of their friends’ new posts via video chat.
2. Government health organisations and UN health agencies are now able to use Facebook’s Workplace for free for the next year and is working on helping them use Messenger to create scaled and educational responses to the virus
3. Discord has actively advertised to the education department to use their software for virtual classes and have increased for free at this time their streaming allowances to non subscribers
4. Microsoft team has actively advertised to businesses and educators their software for them to conduct virtual business meetings and classrooms
5. Microsoft has advertised skype for video conferencing for classrooms and businesses
6. Facebook are advertising free grants to small businesses of which they select after you apply https://www.facebook.com/business/grants 

Do you think these companies are spending millions in lost revenue by offering these services free as they are - out of the pureness of their heart? No, they are advertising key elements of their platforms tastefully to prospective future users or account holders (especially to other businesses) in the hope that they continue to use the platform after this is over. All the while showcasing that they can be charitable and earn brownie points for doing so.

There is a vast difference is distasteful and tasteful marketing. For example tasteful marketing for Second Life during this period would be similar to those above. They could advertise:

• One free month region rental for businesses and a discounted rate for the next 3 months to conduct in world meetings to help those business from not loosing income or going bankrupt due to lack of not being allowed to do meetings with clients or staff etc.
• They could advertise to Architects discounted regions for uploading their 3d models along with direct teleport links from account creation and advertise them as virtual "site visits' allowing the client and architect to explore the design together of which is usually done in meetings
• They could advertise to the education sector virtual classrooms, experiences, experimentations etc and bring back the education discount for a short period or permanently for good will
• The could create a few linked regions that provide virtually up to date information about covid-19 and allow for free virtual seminars by leading professionals that the average person can attend explaining verbally and through models the virus, its affects on the body, social distances and the need for it etc. approved by the WHO. Just like Facebook, Reddit, Google. TikToc, Microsoft etc have all approached the WHO to offer what they can to stop misinformation through the virtual services they provide.

There are so many potential tasteful marketing avenues LL could take during this time to help not only their business but also others and other average joe's, just as pretty well much every business that isn't a shop is doing right now.

As to those saying that reductions in price for regions for a certain period of time etc., saying it wouldn't work etc. Why wouldn't it? You claim because it will reduce their income or make them go bankrupt but, this isn't the case as you are putting your platform out their to help those in times of need. Marketing always has a budget and the prospect of future revenue and user retention is far more important at this time to businesses than adding extra $ to marketing to accommodate for a few freebies over the next 6 months. Well at least it should be and clearly the above mentioned (and many more) tech/virtual driven companies listed above seem to think the same.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[bigmoe Whitfield]

goodbye topic.

[Drayke Newall]

45 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

goodbye topic.

Why? Because I dared (and some others) to suggest that LL could reduce their prices to accommodate other businesses need for virtual space during this time like the OP has suggested? Or do you think its because I dared to suggest that by offering to help those businesses it would also help LL during this time when they also might be affected by the situation financially? Or is it because I suggested that LL can market the very thing SL can offer better in some ways than what many other virtual businesses at a time like this and potentially gain some relevance again by this whilst supporting other businesses and isolators?

I mean, it isn't like other businesses haven't offered free things to help users or keep people isolating at home with things to do. I like to do a little genealogy here and there and Ancestry.com have offered many USA government records to be available for free without a subscription so as people stuck at home isolating can access those records without financial burden whilst they possibly aren't getting paid. MyHeritage have released a new service whereby you can colorize old black and white photos, and guess what they are offering that service for free as well specifically during this time for the same reasons as Ancestry.com. They are even doing a competition via social media to get the word out and promote their new service. No one has thought bad of them for doing it. There is no I'm going to boycott that service because "how dare they support other businesses or people whilst also promoting their own services to help them in this time as well".

Just because something is offered for free and marketed doesn't imply that it is distasteful during a time like this. It is simply a way for companies to help those that are doing it tough by providing free or discounted services during this time as the OP has suggested and in return those users that come also help to support the business during this time.

Second Life has the luxury that it is already free and benefits the average user by offering socialisation, however land isn't and that is what would benefit businesses.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[rasterscan]

During the pandemic, LL has done us proud

[rasterscan]

LL need a super easy spin off to help the planet and the planet needs it now. An avatar to step into. An office space instantly available. No need for humungus grid TP'ing or matching head to neck. No time.. Get 'em in, get 'em sat, get 'em linked up. C'mon ...

Edited March 28, 2020 by rasterscan

[Maitimo]

9 minutes ago, rasterscan said:

LL need a super easy spin off to help the planet and the planet needs it now. An avatar to step into. An office space instantly available. No need for humungus grid TP'ing or matching head to neck. No time.. Get 'em in, get 'em sat, get 'em linked up. C'mon ...

Oooh, this is a good idea.

Single standalone regions, not connected to the main grid (for business security), already "furnished" with a basic tutorial area and a simple office building, conference rooms or classrooms. There'd be little or no lag, and even the cheapest business computers could handle that.

[Hunny Bunny]

 While having new customers would be great, it's trivial if you fail to retain the ones you have. That being said, I'm sure Linden Lab will get right to work on all these ideas SOON™.

[Lewis Luminos]

16 minutes ago, MichaMoz said:

 While having new customers would be great, it's trivial if you fail to retain the ones you have. That being said, I'm sure Linden Lab will get right to work on all these ideas SOON™.

I don't think SL is having problems retaining current users right now. In fact the opposite seems to be happening; many people who had previously left SL are coming back. As a club owner, I've noticed a significant increase in the number of people coming to events this month, tips are up for both myself and my DJs, and I am adding more events to meet demand. 

Cutting user costs and reducing profits is probably the last thing the Lab needs to be doing right now; usage is increasing anyway without taking such measures, and in these uncertain times this will help them establish a financial cushion in case things take a down-turn later on. And don't forget that basic accounts, many of whom do not purchase L$, are using SL's resources but not contributing to Linden Lab's income in any way.  The key strategy is marketing to people who are already here; encouraging basic members to go premium, or at least encouraging them to buy L$ and go shopping, because that keeps the in-world economy vibrant and that in turn encourages existing creators and land-owners to stay.

The real threat is a recession that prevents people spending money in or on Second Life.

[Mollymews]

if this health situation gets worse and Linden do have to move into holding mode because the staff have to stay home to be safe then I am ok should this need to happen

SL is cool and I like it and I spend quite a lot of time logged in, but none of my time inworld is worth any Linden or allied staff getting sick ever

[Lewis Luminos]

4 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

if this health situation gets worse and Linden do have to move into holding mode because the staff have to stay home to be safe then I am ok should this need to happen

SL is cool and I like it and I spend quite a lot of time logged in, but none of my time inworld is worth any Linden or allied staff getting sick ever

All Linden Lab employees are already successfully working 100% from home. Obviously there may be hardware failures in the data centres they use; in some cases it's possible to remotely divert data traffic around the faulty hardware and just leave it until it's safe for staff to go in and repair/replace it. But that may not always be possible, and repairs may take longer than usual, so I suspect that if the situation is prolonged, there may be more frequent outages and issues in-world. 

[Hunny Bunny]

23 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Cutting user costs and reducing profits

I'm not talking about cutting costs. I'm talking about delivering on the "Fifteen reasons to celebrate"  which 738 days later, are still incomplete. If you don't think that is a long time, it's been 971 days since July 31, 2017 when Sansar went beta to today and it's gone. That was a whole new platform and SL being the older it seems to me they should have mastered the one before even attempting to launch the other. The longer they drag it out, the less faith I have it will ever be completed.

 

35 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

In fact the opposite seems to be happening

If this is indeed a fact then site your source. I for one am spending less time and $ on SL and not planning on renewing my premium membership. Instead I'm shifting to other platforms where there's new and often free content every month and I don't think I'm the only one so, before you bite into that pie in the sky, finish your sprouts.

[Garnet Psaltery]

3 hours ago, rasterscan said:

LL need a super easy spin off to help the planet and the planet needs it now. An avatar to step into. An office space instantly available. No need for humungus grid TP'ing or matching head to neck. No time.. Get 'em in, get 'em sat, get 'em linked up. C'mon ...

Ebbe mentioned just this thing happening or being worked on now, during the latest LabGab broadcast. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Garnet Psaltery

[Drayke Newall]

50 minutes ago, MichaMoz said:

I'm not talking about cutting costs. I'm talking about delivering on the "Fifteen reasons to celebrate"  which 738 days later, are still incomplete. If you don't think that is a long time, it's been 971 days since July 31, 2017 when Sansar went beta to today and it's gone. That was a whole new platform and SL being the older it seems to me they should have mastered the one before even attempting to launch the other. The longer they drag it out, the less faith I have it will ever be completed.

If this is indeed a fact then site your source. I for one am spending less time and $ on SL and not planning on renewing my premium membership. Instead I'm shifting to other platforms where there's new and often free content every month and I don't think I'm the only one so, before you bite into that pie in the sky, finish your sprouts.

Very much this. Out of all that they listed so much is either not even released or half finished and only gets more promises of SOON from them. Still waiting on name changes oddly enough even after announcing not long ago the finalisation of the competition which was supposed to herald the features implementation.

For a company of their size as well as their age, they are the slowest to implement anything at all, with as you say other platforms releasing content every month not every 2 years.

Whilst I understand that moving to the cloud is a big thing to do any company by now would have finished all of that given its been over 2 years since they announced that they were doing it. It should have been their #1 priority over all other features listed in that blog post as it would have improved the entire experience for everything 10 fold.

27 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

Ebbe mentioned just this thing happening or being worked on now, during the latest LabGab broadcast. 

Are we in the twilight zone? Rewind back to 2009 and this is the very thing Mark Kingdon was proposing and working towards of which he was ridiculed for by the user base which through his wanting it and sacrificing things for it led to his departure (Here's a hint, display names were introduced to help this transition but that didn't go down to well). A secure area for businesses to host their own area for meetings etc. The one point that was the stickler for businesses that he was working for was a secure area free from LL eyes. Granted he was trying to have it so that those businesses host the world themselves for security, but it isn't short of what you claim (by replying to rasterscan) Ebbe is stating they are now working on. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/second-life-gets-ready-for-enterprise/ .

As I mentioned in a post in another thread a while ago (the marketing one), unfortunately since Mark Kingdon there has been no vision to second life from the heads of LL. Unfortunate if they are working on this now given that the very thing was proposed and being worked on over 10 years ago and scraped.

It will also be a matter for them of too little to late given that that very thing is needed now, and given their track record I would say we wont see it for another 2 years 10 years.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Garnet Psaltery]

2 minutes ago, Drayke Newall said:

Granted he was trying to have it so that those businesses host the world themselves for security, but it isn't short of what you claim Ebbe is stating they are now working on. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/second-life-gets-ready-for-enterprise/ .

 

I don't know what you mean by 'claim'; I simply reported what I heard in the broadcast.  

 

[Drayke Newall]

5 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

I don't know what you mean by 'claim'; I simply reported what I heard in the broadcast.  

What I meant by claim is in that I haven't seen the video you just posted (as I just cant sit and watch something like that without skipping due to a short attention span and just the way the interviews seem to be haphazard, hence why a transcript should be offered) and therefore can only go by what you have said he 'claimed' to have said. Not calling you a liar or anything.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Prokofy Neva]

On 3/26/2020 at 6:51 AM, ItHadToComeToThis said:

-Do more to entice more people to join SL during this period. Given that some are self isolating alone. Perhaps adverts that clearly state "Isolating alone, join Second Life and never be alone again"

-Give a temporary reduction on the cost of owning a region / land. Similar to what they did a few years ago but perhaps half price purchase and two months at half price tier to encourage land ownership and possible new experiences for people to explore during this time (that are not educational institutes).

-Or..open up homesteads to be purchasable without a full region (never going to happen but worth a shot xD)

-Delegate a few lindens into the welcome areas to greet potential new players and help them (hopefully encouraging them to stay)

-Idk...ideas people ideas throw them out there

Yes, they should entice more people to come. Maybe not with ads that are that crude, certainly, but stressing education, art, culture as they have been doing, and also socializing and data which they do anyway.

I do not believe they should offer any cost reduction, and their reductions in cost over the years have not been in response to any crisis like 9/11 or Hurricane Sandy or the London metro terrorist attack and so on, but a steady policy they can do as servers get cheaper. There is always the question of whether offering more sales for less is a prudent . To be available for all of us, they need to secure their own business first, and providing handouts now to the needy is not effective even to the needy if they cannot stay in business.

I'm here to tell you that handouts and freebies and subsidies -- based on the tiny mirror image that my rentals company is to Linden Lab and SL at large -- are not effective, either for those who provide them but still have to stay in business, or ultimately those who benefit from their generosity.

You can take large parcels, reduce them to small ones, and offer them for less, even subsidize them, as I have done for 16 years, offering newbies "a chance" -- even if those newbies are IT people who earn six figures and utterly dwarf my own RL income. I've always done this, but there is a real down side to it, and if you can't understand, I'll explain, but suffice it to say: the people in the cheapest places complain the most and also violate the rules the most and make it pretty impossible to run cheap "newbie" communities effectively. Those in slightly more costly rentals that are not subsidized and at least pay the tier complain the least and conscientiously pay their rent and don't whine. There are all kinds of socio-cultural reasons for this. But that it is an unshakable fact, I can tell you based on vast experience.

I have many free places to hang out in my land preserve and urge people to use those existing free places rather than ask me to pay their rent, essentially, when I need to get my RL groceries and medications, more and more difficult to do as I am at the epicenter of the coronavirus in NYC and immune-compromised. Lindens aren't made of steel; among them are people who are vulnerable in various ways both economically and culturally -- their workforce is not made out of fancy Facebook and Google engineers who get fantastic salaries and a special bus to work; their work force has a lot of very dedicated people of the type who work in non-profits and volunteer because they believe in the cause. The people who run LL are not on yachts now in the Hamptons; they're running your servers. I do wonder how their colo is doing and how much access they have to it.

I would not like to see the Lindens release the homesteads for $79 tier into the wild again. I'd benefit if they do but the problem is that this concept doesn't work as you imagine, just like Air B&B doesn't work as you imagine. It's not that single owners who want a home maybe with a partner, or little old ladies who only log in on Sundays to hold their book clubs are the ones who get the advantage of these servers, like grandma or mom & pop renting out the spare bedroom to survive on Air B&B.

It's land barons who can buy them in bulk and flip them with almost zero customer service and trouble shooting, just like in NYC it's slumlords who create entire ghost towns of B&Bs that they rent out to big corporations who buy them just in case and don't use them. That you aren't in this category is besides the point because the overwhelming number of cheap homestead servers purchased in an open plan as you suggest will be essentially slumlords, and they place more demand on the Lindens. If you weren't here to see the mass flip of these flat white pancakes cut into cheap slices overloading the system back in the day, well, I was, and I know what will happen to this.

I would not want to see Lindens, who are a precious, non-renewable resource, deployed to the welcome areas. They did that in the old days, where top designers and programmers were worn to a nub put on that sort of insane and stupid duty that doesn't work to increase retention and only wears them down needlessly. I don't even want to see "helpers" or "guides" of their friends deployed because those systems are instantly corrupted.

It's key to remember that newbies aren't necessarily helpless creatures like refugees being turned away from our border or arrested -- those are people truly in need of your help, concern, and charity. They are affluent Americans who have at least some kind of job or gig. They are well--paid IT guys often. They aren't as helpless as you think, and there are already a lot of helpers like Caledon Oxbridge out there to help them.

The Lindens need to secure their own staff and premises. They are a business that relies on reputation and trust and so they won't scare you now with their harsh realities but they do exist. They are in a lock-down city where I'm not sure all their staff can come in as they are not a "crucial" or "mission-critical" business. It doesn't matter if they are "100% working from home" because it's not like "home" is a magic unicorn realm that won't have its Internet cut off or slowed soon. Some staff may have the virus already. I don't know whether they were able to fit themselves under "media" or "IT services" that are listed in city and state protocols as "critical". They are and they aren't.

So don't place unnecessary and selfish demands on them. They have a lot of remote workers and so on and they can strengthen that but they need their own war chest now to survive, not to waste it on people who in fact have resources -- their users. Somebody who can't spend even US $5 on a rental in SL without a premium account is someone who likely shouldn't waste their electricity playing on SL.

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Prokofy Neva]

11 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Very much this. Out of all that they listed so much is either not even released or half finished and only gets more promises of SOON from them. Still waiting on name changes oddly enough even after announcing not long ago the finalisation of the competition which was supposed to herald the features implementation.

For a company of their size as well as their age, they are the slowest to implement anything at all, with as you say other platforms releasing content every month not every 2 years.

Whilst I understand that moving to the cloud is a big thing to do any company by now would have finished all of that given its been over 2 years since they announced that they were doing it. It should have been their #1 priority over all other features listed in that blog post as it would have improved the entire experience for everything 10 fold.

Are we in the twilight zone? Rewind back to 2009 and this is the very thing Mark Kingdon was proposing and working towards of which he was ridiculed for by the user base which through his wanting it and sacrificing things for it led to his departure (Here's a hint, display names were introduced to help this transition but that didn't go down to well). A secure area for businesses to host their own area for meetings etc. The one point that was the stickler for businesses that he was working for was a secure area free from LL eyes. Granted he was trying to have it so that those businesses host the world themselves for security, but it isn't short of what you claim (by replying to rasterscan) Ebbe is stating they are now working on. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/second-life-gets-ready-for-enterprise/ .

As I mentioned in a post in another thread a while ago (the marketing one), unfortunately since Mark Kingdon there has been no vision to second life from the heads of LL. Unfortunate if they are working on this now given that the very thing was proposed and being worked on over 10 years ago and scraped.

It will also be a matter for them of too little to late given that that very thing is needed now, and given their track record I would say we wont see it for another 2 years 10 years.

Sometimes there are good reasons for these things, sometimes there are not.

What I find already sadly being duplicated is the way businesses and educational institutions come into the SL situation dooming themselves to failure.

They insist on buying a full, stand-alone island that they can lock down and secure against griefers and intruders and just simply sexualized beings and furries. They are over-afraid of this, but you will not get them to get rid of this.

They insist on having Lindens or Moles build infrastructure for them (I've seen this already) or on hiring expensive "solutions providers" to build expensive replicas of RL buildings. They start putting demands on being able to override copyright in order to serve their own narrow interests because they are in systems of brutal bureaucracies with self-interest served by Soviet-style gigantism.

They insist on putting 4 regions together to have 200 audience seats available because they think in terms of mass stadiums, often like frankly Hitler or Stalin did. The masses. Who aren't even in fact there. 

They are adverse to simply buying a 4096 parcel on an island or even on the mainland and just putting an existing prefab from the open market on that 4096 and having their office or meeting there, which is really enough in 90% of the use cases.

They could stream a Zoom available on that 4096 or 4096 x 10 or 20 or whatever scattered around SL instead of on 4 sims pushed together in a laggy slagheap, but they won't do that. Because they are too clutchy about the individual conversations that happen outside their controlled stream. They keep clutching and controlling as institutions to control the experience and that dooms them to failure.

This can happen because they either have a heavily ideological meme-pushing regime of the type you see on TED talks (where there aren't Q & A or if they are, they are heavily scripted and censored) OR they have bureaucratic protocols from businesses or universities that are devoid of imagination. 

This is a time when they could walk around the robots and do things differently, but I think once again, we will see them not do that for all the reasons I cited, and all the reasons that govern your own ideological world.

The security of data flow -- secure even from LL eyes -- is not unreasonable because LL is a rich stew of people who used to be in other big industries from IBM to Cisco to Facebook to whatever and they leak. But big businesses have pages on Facebook or Twitter without anything near this unreasonable insistence on locked-down data flow that they demand of LL. Facebook doesn't grant a special sequestered page to big corporations that have to remain open to the public if they are to have customers. 

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Lewis Luminos]

 

13 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

If this is indeed a fact then site your source. I for one am spending less time and $ on SL and not planning on renewing my premium membership. Instead I'm shifting to other platforms where there's new and often free content every month and I don't think I'm the only one so, before you bite into that pie in the sky, finish your sprouts.

I was actually there. I saw it with my own eyes. I counted them. I've looked at my transaction history.  Every event in my club this month has had attendance double the usual. Every event I have been to at other clubs I visit regularly was the same.  Obviously this is a very small sample but if I am the only person in SL that this is happening to, well that's even weirder than I thought, and I'd like to hear an explanation of how my club, and the ones I visit, are the only ones that are booming, and only since this month.

You may be spending less on SL but my transaction history shows that plenty of other people are doing the opposite.

I love sprouts, by the way.