End of an Era, no more Pods.

[Rob Huntsman]

There's alot of communities dying in SL, not just pods. They're more video games released every year, and some that are just like Second life (IMVU, Smeet, Chit Chat city, etc). 

In short though, Second life has a bucket list of problems such as high cost for sims, players not being able to find anything to do besides shop & gamble, and terrible computer performance on modern computers. It's not a real shock SL is hemorrhaging players.

[Holocluck Henly]

18 hours ago, ChinRey said:

That's a brilliant idea. It should also be possible to add rezzers to all the existing stations on private land.

---

But those pods on a regular schedule have - or at least had - another function too, one we hardly ever think about. I mentioned all pods report any problem spots they come across back to the server so they can be programmed into next day's pods. Yavanna also used to report any serious problems to LDPW, giving them constant updates on the condition of the Linden road system. I don't know if she still does. It was Michael who handled those report and the communication may ahve broken down when he left. If that's the case, maybe it's time to reestablish the contact.

LDPW doesn't have ticketing but land issues have a ticketing system. Or maybe it was an AR?

As for rez-only option, pod users are finding this to be a challenge right now. 

1. First, many touring ones are long range and leaving off, either at a place of interest or a landmarked location to continue is no longer possible.
a. A pod would wait until, for instance, 20 and 50 past the hour at a mole island pier while you explored. Now it disappears when you get out and there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
b. Some full length tours take several hours, with a few traversing over more than one continent. My friend and I did the massive Heterocera Atoll  over the course of 4 evenings. It starts and ends in the Sansara Snowlands. When you hit a bad region crossing, there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
c. There's the issue with one of two riders crashing. The pod continues but the returning traveller cannot sit. Again they cannot wait for a 'next pod' to resume together.

3. Many pods rendezvous with other pods at intersections during their long journeys. We can no longer make those connections.

Hope Patch & Yavanna get to chat.

[Holocluck Henly]

13 hours ago, Jennifer Boyle said:

Huh? This is nonsense. I have occupied a house on the Mainland that fronts on a Linden road since 2009, and I have seldom seen one. They hardly "dominate all sims and all roads."

I "live and work on the Mainland," since 2007, and I've never had a problem with them.

A decade ago those awful Otooles dominated the routes, and I truly mean dominated. They shoved riders off roads and into banlines. They shot at people (one of them was a tank). They could be noisy (an ice cream truck). They lumbered around the roads like a drunk uncle. And there would sometimes be more than one within view along a region (drove my friend bonkers; he owned half a region with protected road going thru and there would be a veritable parade of the things). AND they each had 18-20 scripts in them, sucking the resources out of the region. Also they hawked product.

Compare that with a small phantom pod, neatly riding along the road, barely a blip on the server, offering interesting anecdotes, adapting to the route & serving so many residents. The only place you'll find hawking product is *on* Yavanna's parcels in West Satori & the Snowlands.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Holocluck Henly

[ChinRey]

7 minutes ago, Holocluck Henly said:

LDPW doesn't have ticketing but land issues have a ticketing system. Or maybe it was an AR?

It was a ticket.

 

8 minutes ago, Holocluck Henly said:

As for rez-only option, pod users are finding this to be a challenge right now.

Indeed. It is a different topic than getting the pods back though. Maybe we should take one thing at a time. Besides, this is Yavanna's call, we can come up with wishes and suggestions but she decides.

 

12 minutes ago, Holocluck Henly said:

Hope Patch & Yavanna get to chat.

I'm sure they will. At least Yavanna and whichever SuperLinden who is assigned to the case will.

[Holocluck Henly]

Just now, ChinRey said:

It was a ticket.

 

Indeed. It is a different topic than getting the pods back though. Maybe we should take one thing at a time. Besides, this is Yavanna's call, we can come up with wishes and suggestions but she decides.

 

I'm sure they will. At least Yavanna and whichever SuperLinden who is assigned to the case will.

The pods ARE running. Just on rez and sit at stations. I broke down the instant loss we've experienced, with her three ferry service routes to follow.

[Aethelwine]

I just want to add my best wishes for Yavanna's health and to add like the others the Pods brought hours of joy and taught me a lot about the history of mainland  and increased my appreciation of it.

I really hope this can be resolved.

[Mollymews]

13 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

The main reason BYOT doesn't work is that folks -- especially new arrivals to Mainland -- just don't expect to bring their own trains to the train station. Despite our group giving ready-made, free open-source locomotives from as near as we can get to those stations, before the Pods, we'd regularly encounter avatars standing on the platforms expecting to hop on a passing train, kinda like the Moles' systems in Bay City and Nova Albion, and like the SLRR itself in the distant past, several Havoks ago. Even a little like Real Life.

It would be theoretically possible for LDPW to operate a Pod or Pod-like network over the SLRR and other "touring" routes, but can they really invest the ongoing level of effort and technical passion Yavanna brings to the project?

true. There is this about BYOT and about the level of effort/time/dedication needed to monitor/improve this kind of transport system.  Maybe in addition to buying the routes for some lump sum, @Patch Lindencould also hire Yavanna as a Mole with the sole express job of looking after the system

[Mollymews]

just thinking more all the cool things that a LPDW tour system (Yavanna Mole if there was) could include when is added to the over-arching Linden Experience

like in the little rowboat. Touch the boat and pick Row, temp-attach oars and row the boat. Or, pick Fish and attach a marlin fishing line

on the train. Pick Sleep and auto-attach a pillow and play a snooze animation. Pick Drink and get tea or coffee. Pick Meal and get a food tray. Pick Book and have a read

and so on

 

 

[Zpo4]

There should be a free AI taxi service on SL. A bot should pick you up in the cab and you select where on the map you want to go. 

[Hendrix Portal]

2 hours ago, Holocluck Henly said:

As for rez-only option, pod users are finding this to be a challenge right now. 

1. First, many touring ones are long range and leaving off, either at a place of interest or a landmarked location to continue is no longer possible.
a. A pod would wait until, for instance, 20 and 50 past the hour at a mole island pier while you explored. Now it disappears when you get out and there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
b. Some full length tours take several hours, with a few traversing over more than one continent. My friend and I did the massive Heterocera Atoll  over the course of 4 evenings. It starts and ends in the Sansara Snowlands. When you hit a bad region crossing, there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
c. There's the issue with one of two riders crashing. The pod continues but the returning traveller cannot sit. Again they cannot wait for a 'next pod' to resume together

3. Many pods rendezvous with other pods at intersections during their long journeys. We can no longer make those connections.
 

Came here to say (most of) this, and add my thoughts.

The pods have been around nearly as long as I have. I've always loved them, and chosen mainland based on proximity to a pod route. I've introduced friends to them, and subsequently areas of SL they'd never explored. It's been a "thing" with some friends to be standing around chatting, then one of us spies a pod coming, and interrupts the convo by yelling POD! Silly, yes, but it's just part of us. We've had some good times, usually out of the Durango station and the Chamonix City tour is always a hit. Once on a pod ride we were attacked by scripted zombies - never mind that the person who rezzed them was deliberately griefing the pods - it was some of the best and funniest spontaneous RP we've ever had. 

I can't imagine mainland without them. Hopping a pod when one goes by, even if it's just for something to do, has always been a draw for me. I'm glad Patch is on the case, and best wishes for Yavanna, who has been kind and helpful to me inworld.

[Asadora Summers]

Good evening, Hi, Hello, How are ya'll?

 

If you are looking for updates:

The Pod Riders Group in-world - We have an update and Q&A chat time in group, so far it's been happening at 2pm EST (11am SLT)
We also have an official discord server - the link is in group notices.
Please don't be offended upon joining the in-world group and the answer to your question is: Check Group Notices - consider it your welcome to the group!

I want to thank everyone who has sent their well wishes to Yavanna. All the IMs and notecards of thanks and support, will be copied and pasted into email and sent to her. As we all know offlines can get capped. Logging in and being slammed with offlines it can be a bit stressful. And no one likes stress.
I'll be sending the Thanks and Support email to Yavanna tomorrow evening UK time.
So there is time for those of you that want to send on thanks and support to do so.

If you would like to speak to me directly not a problem, hit me up in world please.
I may be slow in responding to replies here, but I have faith that someone from the Pod Riders group will point it out to me

To all that have shared their memories, emotions and experiences with the Pods in a positive fashion, thank you.
It truly means a lot.
You've done Mainland proud.

Kind Regards.

P.S. I just want to make it clear that my above words were sincere and of good Will. After reading it for the fourth time, I realise that it may have come across as not intended, so I am putting this here to make sure that it did come across as intended which was from the heart and with kindness.




 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Asadora Summers
to make sure people didn't mis understand me

[Lindal Kidd]

6 hours ago, Zpo4 said:

There should be a free AI taxi service on SL. A bot should pick you up in the cab and you select where on the map you want to go. 

Oh sure.  This would, I suppose, be SL's version of hopping in a cab with a Pakistani driver who speaks no English.  You'd never have the faintest idea where you would end up.

[Prokofy Neva]

22 hours ago, Jennifer Boyle said:

Huh? This is nonsense. I have occupied a house on the Mainland that fronts on a Linden road since 2009, and I have seldom seen one. They hardly "dominate all sims and all roads."

I "live and work on the Mainland," since 2007, and I've never had a problem with them.

Yes, you've just explained the problem. You occupy ONE HOUSE on ONE ROAD> It's because you're in one house,  AND you support the idea of the pods, and idealize them, and therefore don't want to see what there is to see. I am on 50 different sims constantly, I see A LOT OF THEM all the time, with no drivers in them.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Prokofy Neva]

9 hours ago, ChinRey said:

It was a ticket.

 

Indeed. It is a different topic than getting the pods back though. Maybe we should take one thing at a time. Besides, this is Yavanna's call, we can come up with wishes and suggestions but she decides.

 

I'm sure they will. At least Yavanna and whichever SuperLinden who is assigned to the case will.

Why is this a challenge? Put stations even on every other sim (I would find this excessive, but it could be done). You fly to a station (remember, you can fly, it's a virtual world), and rez on demand. Then they don't spam the roads. Why is this so hard?

[Prokofy Neva]

9 hours ago, Holocluck Henly said:

LDPW doesn't have ticketing but land issues have a ticketing system. Or maybe it was an AR?

As for rez-only option, pod users are finding this to be a challenge right now. 

1. First, many touring ones are long range and leaving off, either at a place of interest or a landmarked location to continue is no longer possible.
a. A pod would wait until, for instance, 20 and 50 past the hour at a mole island pier while you explored. Now it disappears when you get out and there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
b. Some full length tours take several hours, with a few traversing over more than one continent. My friend and I did the massive Heterocera Atoll  over the course of 4 evenings. It starts and ends in the Sansara Snowlands. When you hit a bad region crossing, there is no 'next pod' to resume the tour.
c. There's the issue with one of two riders crashing. The pod continues but the returning traveller cannot sit. Again they cannot wait for a 'next pod' to resume together.

3. Many pods rendezvous with other pods at intersections during their long journeys. We can no longer make those connections.

Hope Patch & Yavanna get to chat.

None of what you are saying is any reason not to have rez on demand.

The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of the pods are not "long tours" or "specialized" but just a loop. People hop on and hop off. There is no reason why they can't do this at a station.

The OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of use cases -- just read this thread! -- are people describing how they hop on and hop off on a whim,  not go on a long, specialized tour.

The number of people who have done a four-hour tour you describe is a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage even of the tiny percentage of the population here on the forums, which is like 5% of the user base, if that.

If a tour is specialized, and long, that's all the more reason to have a station that has a map and a notecard and information about the sites -- and rez on demand.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

9 hours ago, Holocluck Henly said:

A decade ago those awful Otooles dominated the routes, and I truly mean dominated. They shoved riders off roads and into banlines. They shot at people (one of them was a tank). They could be noisy (an ice cream truck). They lumbered around the roads like a drunk uncle. And there would sometimes be more than one within view along a region (drove my friend bonkers; he owned half a region with protected road going thru and there would be a veritable parade of the things). AND they each had 18-20 scripts in them, sucking the resources out of the region. Also they hawked product.

Compare that with a small phantom pod, neatly riding along the road, barely a blip on the server, offering interesting anecdotes, adapting to the route & serving so many residents. The only place you'll find hawking product is *on* Yavanna's parcels in West Satori & the Snowlands.

Yes, I can compare. And I can also point out that as annoying as ice cream trucks or tanks are, at least they are different kinds of vehicles. The pods, are like from outer space. They are pods. They do not fit with the environment. They are...pods. If they were even just different models of cars, they would be easier to take. But they aren't. It's an endless stream of spam pods, like a bag of frozen peas falling out of the refrigerator and spilling all over the floor so that your bare feet feel their coldness. PS they have no passengers.

[Prokofy Neva]

On 8/21/2020 at 10:33 PM, ChinRey said:

Yes but only at the big hubs. What Prokofy suggests is to have many more of them along the entire routes.

Yes, that's exactly the point. Not just that they have them at major junctions -- and by the way, that's where you can see the low numbers for their use of "0" or "1" before you. But if people feel they must have them so ubiquitous that when the whim hits them, they are nearby, put them on every other sim if you must. I would find that excessive. But why not? The Lindens have the prims and it's just a chore to do over time. The point of having rez stations -- again -- is so that there isn't an endless stream of autopilot spam cars. There would ONLY be pods with people in them actually wanting them.

[Prokofy Neva]

8 hours ago, Mollymews said:

true. There is this about BYOT and about the level of effort/time/dedication needed to monitor/improve this kind of transport system.  Maybe in addition to buying the routes for some lump sum, @Patch Lindencould also hire Yavanna as a Mole with the sole express job of looking after the system

I think as in real life, the government should be in charge of roads and mass transit, and not private companies. I think if the Lindens were in charge of it, they might see the logic of not having spam vehicles without passengers, it's a waste of resources.

Except...my theory about why the Lindens have allowed all this vehicular nonsense all this time is because it's a free load test that they don't have to do. They can just watch sims that might otherwise be empty due to all the Mainland problems and mass abandonment, and see that some *thing* is crossing them and see how it does at sim seams. It's a constant experiment they don't have to put time and energy in, but can capture the data from. It's called the Lab for a reason.

But maybe now that they have collected data for 10-15 years on these things, they are ready to regularize them and stop having them spam the world but only be used on demand by those who are actually going to have human eyes to see the world going by.

[Arielle Popstar]

29 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Yes, you've just explained the problem. You occupy ONE HOUSE on ONE ROAD> It's because you're in one house,  AND you support the idea of the pods, and idealize them, and therefore don't want to see what there is to see. I am on 50 different sims constantly, I see A LOT OF THEM all the time, with no drivers in them.

I think you have explained the problem more so. Most of us like and accept them and therefore the pods become part of the backround scenery whereas your seeming intense dislike draws your ire to each one seen, amplifying how frequently they are seen as your eyes search them out specifically.

Love the pods and you will no longer be flooded by this negativity towards them.🍦

[Anna Nova]

Thinking seriously about the suggestions of Pod-on-demand, and @Prokofy Neva's dislike of empty-pods-in-the-landscape...

Would it be possible to have a Hud that you click to 'call' a pod to a location?  Assuming the location is on a route, of course.  Rather than millions of pod stations.

(Trying to find ideas that suit more people rather than just spouting hate...)

[Alwin Alcott]

32 minutes ago, Anna Nova said:

(Trying to find ideas that suit more people rather than just spouting hate...)

why adjust a good working system for one complainer that made it even a profession?
If the pods really disappear it will be the pink haired furries [fill in any other object/person/renter]  next time that are causing annoyances.
I didn't see really a lot of people in this thread against pods, so it's pretty ok they stay.
A better thing would be to promote it more, more people using it traveling the mainland might make it more attractive in the longer time, because some see all free land there, and can be a great place to live.

[Famously Dismantled]

Nobody delete your pod station and give up your land just yet.

[Bock McMillan]

On 8/22/2020 at 2:49 AM, Asadora Summers said:

I am not here to advocate for what is right or what is wrong. So, if you do reply to this, then I hope it is in the same positive mindset of which I am sharing here.

I am trying to remain positive, but... There was nothing positive about the video you shared.

You assumed, on the word of a person that is recovering from a lethal and/or crippling disease and by her own admission is very tired, that all the information you had received in the note card from that person is correct. Based on that assumption you made an highly emotionally charged 20+ minutes long YouTube-video supporting the "allegations" made in the note card. 

[Qie Niangao]

It would be possible to quantify the percentage of fully autonomous Pod trips that don't have riders -- but it would be a silly thing to do. Measuring their true resource use, they're approximately as taxing to the region as an idle poseball.

Now, I do despise poseballs, but I wouldn't characterize them as "spam" even though they're vanishingly near 100% unoccupied. I might feel differently if the road were teaming with unoccupied poseballs from numerous residents, but honestly, if one drifted by every few minutes I think I could bring myself to look away, even though they're loathsome poseballs. Now if there were a continent that banned poseballs, it might have some appeal.

And behold, there are continents with Linden route land settings that effectively ban the fully autonomous Pods: Bellisseria, the old Linden Homes continents, and most of Zindra. Any folks who feel about the Pods the way I feel about poseballs are in luck: they're welcome to move to one of those continents, just as one may choose Bellisseria to avoid whitelist banlines.

Sadly, no continent for us poseballphobes.

[BJoyful]

36 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

It would be possible to quantify the percentage of fully autonomous Pod trips that don't have riders -- but it would be a silly thing to do. Measuring their true resource use, they're approximately as taxing to the region as an idle poseball.

Now, I do despise poseballs, but I wouldn't characterize them as "spam" even though they're vanishingly near 100% unoccupied. I might feel differently if the road were teaming with unoccupied poseballs from numerous residents, but honestly, if one drifted by every few minutes I think I could bring myself to look away, even though they're loathsome poseballs. Now if there were a continent that banned poseballs, it might have some appeal.

And behold, there are continents with Linden route land settings that effectively ban the fully autonomous Pods: Bellisseria, the old Linden Homes continents, and most of Zindra. Any folks who feel about the Pods the way I feel about poseballs are in luck: they're welcome to move to one of those continents, just as one may choose Bellisseria to avoid whitelist banlines.

Sadly, no continent for us poseballphobes.

I wonder if a 1 LI Pod Rezzer sign would use less resources than a waiting poseball, as I guess some script would always be ||listening ?  Perhaps if the 1 LI Pod Rezzer signs could be 1 per Region, and scripted only so they rez right on what ever it is that keeps them on the road it would be very convenient for riders (I am one of the infrequent pod-ride lovers) and resources at the same time?  I'm not very techie and very new to LSL, Basic and C+ and C++ so I don't understand the server cost of scripts very well, but I think you might know more about that?