Lab Gab?

[Maitimo]

20 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

There in lies the problem.  There is no where that a vast number of people can voice any concerns about anything WITH LL.  Inworld.where maybe a dozen people attend?  The forums?  Lab Gab where questions and concerns will be hand picked for comment/discussion?

It's sad that after all these years, residents still have no place...

This indeed is a major problem. I was informed that the proper route is a support ticket. Which I raised, only to have it fobbed off and closed with no resolution.

There is literally NO WAY that any SL resident can openly and transparently raise concerns. Our options are to either accept without question, or close our accounts and walk away.

And that is really, really terrible business practise (and potentially illegal - not sure what the CA consumer laws look like but it would be illegal in Europe for sure).

[Coffee Pancake]

Resident felt like a dirty word when it was introduced.

It still does.

[Cali Souther]

Typical of most businesses these days,  all they care about it getting *new* customers and increasing the bottom line.  They figure most of us will stick around as long as things don't get too bad.

[Ceka Cianci]

When is this lab gab supposed to come out anyways?

[Sparkle Bunny]

By the sound of it they're recording on Thursday, releasing on Friday.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Was the Lab Gab ever attended by the Residents or was it always recorded and filmed for next day broadcast?

I know some other meetings can be attended live.

[Qie Niangao]

4 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Was the Lab Gab ever attended by the Residents or was it always recorded and filmed for next day broadcast?

I know some other meetings can be attended live.

They've certainly been live before. There's a whole long list of Lab Gab sessions on YouTube. I'm sure "Birthday" sessions were recorded live at the 4-region auditoriums they build for those events, e.g. "Second Life's Lab Gab SL18B Special with the Linden Lab Leadership Team", and I think some other non-Birthday episodes were live too. (Although they respond to resident questions, I kinda doubt they take live questions from the audience like the old town halls. Those were horrid already in Rosedale's day, and impossible to moderate.)

Edited March 8, 2023 by Qie Niangao
clarify it's *live* audience questions I doubt they take anymore

[Sid Nagy]

Lab Gab is nothing more than an advertorial.
They give it a journalistic look..... miming an interview, but they and only they control what is shown, asked and answered.
In a genuine interview setting, an independent reporter would select and ask the questions and ask even more questions when needed.

Lab Gab is a promotional tool, nothing more. Giving some the illusion that they are open and transparent towards their customers, while everybody knows better who has been around for a few years and isn't willing to bend over backwards for them to be a fanboy/girl no matter what. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Sid Nagy
Englisn, as always.

[Adam Spark]

19 hours ago, Cali Souther said:

Typical of most businesses these days,  all they care about it getting *new* customers and increasing the bottom line.  They figure most of us will stick around as long as things don't get too bad.

Actually, that is typical of any business that does not want to have to shut its doors. A prerequisite, actually. Once growth becomes secondary, the business sinks and closes up. Not just these days either, thats always the case. And yes, only when things are too bad for them do people leave most any business. If they didn't care about getting new customers, this place would eventually turn into a boring ghost town, as people disappear at one point or another for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with SL itself. We'll all be gone one day, and not necessarily by choice. So yes, they are focused on new customers. Current ones benefit by that as it keeps this place running.

[Adam Spark]

18 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Lab Gab is nothing more than an advertorial.
They give it a journalistic look..... miming an interview, but they and only they control what is shown, asked and answered.
In a genuine interview setting, an independent reporter would select and ask the questions and ask even more questions when needed.

Lab Gab is a promotional tool, nothing more. Giving some the illusion that they are open and transparent towards their customers, while everybody knows better, who has been around for a few years and isn't willing to bend over backwards for them to be a fanboy/girl no matter what. 

Every interview is like that. In a "genuine" interview setting, the interviewed clears the subject and often reviews questions and will not answer honestly or at all any questions they do not wish to. They often do it to talk about something or promote something. If they clear taking follow up questions, they choose carefully what to indulge and how to indulge it. Almost every interview is an advertisement of or explanation of something going on presently. If they welcome an ask me anything session, its either lip service and you won't get the truth (most public figures, if not all, are coached on how to handle interviews. Heck, LL is probably told by lawyers what not to indulge at times, if not often), or you'll get it by THEIR choice. The interviewed is always in control and will refuse to answer off limits questions (sometimes to the point of ending the interview).

I would much rather just hear from them what they are doing than not even bother to make their presence known like lindens did for so many years.

[Sid Nagy]

18 hours ago, Adam Spark said:

Actually, that is typical of any business that does not want to have to shut its doors. A prerequisite, actually. Once growth becomes secondary, the business sinks and closes up. Not just these days either, thats always the case. And yes, only when things are too bad for them do people leave most any business. If they didn't care about getting new customers, this place would eventually turn into a boring ghost town, as people disappear at one point or another for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with SL itself. We'll all be gone one day, and not necessarily by choice. So yes, they are focused on new customers. Current ones benefit by that as it keeps this place running.

If a companie solemnly gets their income with a social platform than besides making a profit and trying to find new customers, some social awkward customer service and costumer care would help a lot.
I think, that if we would ask all long term users, most of them will agree that costumer care and service could need a lot of improvement at the Lab.
Way to many great ideas that have come up on these and other forums over the years are simply swept under the carpet or totally ignored.
"Submit a ticket" at best. And than the ticket is ignored or silently closed.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king.
They know that Second Life is that one-eyed product and so they don't care very much about what we think or feel. In their view they don't need to.
I tried out several other platform during the last few weeks (because I will not set foot inworld in SL again as long as the privacy thingy hasn't somehow improved) but there is no real competition out there.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Sid Nagy
Improvements of the text. I blame my English again.

[Adam Spark]

4 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

If a companies solemnly gets their income with a social platform than besides making a profit and trying to find new customers, some social awkward customer service and costumer care would help a lot.
I think, that if would ask all long term users, most of them will agree that costumer care and service could need a lot of improvement at the Lab.
Way to many great ideas that have come up on these and other forums over the years are simply swept under the carpet or totally ignored.
"Submit a ticket" at best. And than the ticket is ignored or silently closed.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king.
They know that Second Life is that one-eyed product and so they don't care very much about what we think or feel.
I tried out several other platform during the last few weeks (because I will not set foot inworld again as long as the privacy thingy hasn't somehow improved) but there is no real competition out there.

Every business could improve upon their customer service. I agree they have a long way to go.

As for Lab Gab, though, I would love for it to turn into a free for all discussion, but that doesn't happen anywhere, at least not where you can be certain you're hearing the truth. In terms of customer service, Lab Gab is an improvement over the years of "Lindens don't even log in due to company policy".

[diamond Marchant]

39 minutes ago, Adam Spark said:

Once growth becomes secondary, the business sinks and closes up.

In the days before blitzscaling,  "financial growth or death" was a law of business. Linden Lab is a mystery in that it appears to have NOT grown for over a decade. As they are private, we have little info on what is really going on... Waterfield Group (the owners) perhaps see Linden Lab as a (temporary) cash cow while they build a business with Tilia. This suggests that everyone at Linden Lab is on budget. Reducing expenses and improving productivity are priorities. If Governance takes action on an AR or support fixes a problem, be grateful.

Sid has described Lab Gab as "nothing more than an advertorial". Spot on. However, Lab Gab DOES PROVIDE useful information. Patch, Grumpity, and Mojo collectively form the operational head  of Linden Lab... what in a normal (public) company would be the CEO. Lab Gab shows us what they desire to have us know. We will hear their voices and observe their interactions, so that might inform on their emotions and perhaps, priorities.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Sid Nagy said:

Lab Gab is nothing more than an advertorial.

Is that like an "adversarial" advertisement? Or "dictatorial"?

I like, "adverteasement"!

[Nika Talaj]

Ah!  Mojo, the invisible man.  I hope he speaks up.  I would love to be able to glean something about how LL's engineering group is being run nowadays, how decisions are made.  It feels to me more like a productive engineering group, and less like a club of prototypers.  I've been particularly appreciative of the enhancements to LSL, and the fact that documentation in the wiki shows up in advance of new functionality (as opposed to being provided by public-spirited residents after exhaustive empirical research). 

Although it probably isn't larger, LL's engineering group has, IMHO, been showing an increase in their ability to make progress simultaneously on a number of meaningful enhancements. 

Oh, and, to me the point to Grumpity's avatars has always been that you can be anything you want in SL.  Tomorrow she may be a Giraffe.  Yay! 

[Sid Nagy]

 

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Is that like an "adversarial" advertisement? Or "dictatorial"?

I like, "adverteasement"!

Ow, I thought advertorial was English.
An advertorial over here is when a company buys ad space in a newspaper and makes it look and feel like if it is an article from the newsroom.
When this happens most newspapers will only accept the ad, if the word advertorial is above the advertisement and if they use a different font type than the paper does.

"Advertorial - noun - a newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article."

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Ow, I thought advertorial was English.
An advertorial over here is when a company buys ad space in a newspaper and makes it look and feel like if it is an article from the newsroom.
When this happens most newspapers will only accept the ad, if the word advertorial is above the advertisement and if they use a different font type than the paper does.

"Advertorial - noun - a newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article."

Ah! Like an "editorial + advertisement"!

Here, if someone were to print one of those, it must at least have the small word "ADVERTISEMENT" somewhere. Supposebly. ("Supposebly" is not actually a word).

 

[Sid Nagy]

51 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Sid has described Lab Gab as "nothing more than an advertorial". Spot on. However, Lab Gab DOES PROVIDE useful information. Patch, Grumpity, and Mojo collectively form the operational head  of Linden Lab... what in a normal (public) company would be the CEO. Lab Gab shows us what they desire to have us know. We will hear their voices and observe their interactions, so that might inform on their emotions and perhaps, priorities.

I think it would be a great improvement, if they would film Lab Gab with their RL identities instead of their emotionless SL avatars.
There could be better use of camera movement and switches.
To view Lab Gab is quite boring the way it is at the moment IMHO. It doesn't ad much.
Now waiting for a transcript is sufficient and for a non native speaker even easier.

[Qie Niangao]

32 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

I think it would be a great improvement, if they would film Lab Gab with their RL identities instead of their emotionless SL avatars.
There could be better use of camera movement and switches.
To view Lab Gab is quite boring the way it is at the moment IMHO. It doesn't ad much.
Now waiting for a transcript is sufficient and for a non native speaker even easier.

You're shilling for the Puppetry project, right? 😛

FWIW, I hate all YouTube things and pulling back the mask and showing real faces wouldn't make much difference to me. It's so much faster to read a transcript—especially in this case when I know two-thirds of the event will be about a rate cut and fee increase neither of which affect me in the slightest.

It's not that Strawberry doesn't do a good job though, given the medium. She usually has something moving around on the set, keeping busy at least the visual cortex. And they all have pleasant avatars, much more efficient to wear those than RL wardrobe, hair and makeup. And for a sizable share of residents, the "event" of a Lab Gab draws more and different eyeballs than a blog post with embedded panel discussion transcript.

All said as an excuse to plead one last time to get in those questions. See if you can sneak in an interesting topic so the whole thing isn't just the scrivener's rehash of the rates and fees announcement it's otherwise destined to be.

[Qie Niangao]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

Although it probably isn't larger, LL's engineering group has, IMHO, been showing an increase in their ability to make progress simultaneously on a number of meaningful enhancements. 

I too sense an increase, and I think they may have grown dev staff a bit The change seemed to start after a few Sansar refugees washed ashore. Or maybe it was the Sansar collapse itself that picked up the pace, a "kill the chicken to scare the monkey" thing.

[Cali Souther]

3 hours ago, Adam Spark said:

Actually, that is typical of any business that does not want to have to shut its doors. A prerequisite, actually. Once growth becomes secondary, the business sinks and closes up. Not just these days either, thats always the case. And yes, only when things are too bad for them do people leave most any business. If they didn't care about getting new customers, this place would eventually turn into a boring ghost town, as people disappear at one point or another for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with SL itself. We'll all be gone one day, and not necessarily by choice. So yes, they are focused on new customers. Current ones benefit by that as it keeps this place running.

 

I do believe they can care about getting new customers AND care about existing customers at the same time.   I agree,  we need an influx of new to keep going and to grow.

Cable companies are the best example of my peeve with the way a lot (not all) companies do business - I say these days,  because customer service is at an all time low - at least in the USA.   They spend ALL their efforts on getting new customers,  do NOT take care of current customers, but if you leave they spend a lot of money trying to get you back!   

I don't think LL / SL is as bad as cable companies and cell phone companies (two of the worst @ customer service) ....    but they do (based on all the posts I've read) seem to keep their distance, which makes some residents feel abandoned / forgotten / unheard.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

All said as an excuse to plead one last time to get in those questions. See if you can sneak in an interesting topic so the whole thing isn't just the scrivener's rehash of the rates and fees announcement it's otherwise destined to be.

Done, although I'm not very hopeful it will be answered. Or, if it is, answered with anything very detailed or informative.

[diamond Marchant]

On 3/6/2023 at 12:48 PM, diamond Marchant said:

I asked "Why did Grumpity change her avatar"? 

Stawberry (my fave) asked Grumpity why she changed from her "stick figure". Grumpity said a bunch of words that came down to "didn't like the way attachments attached to the stick figure" and "thought it would be cool to be a human" and "but I am slowly adding back the stick figure attachments".

Update: Went back and rewatched, noticed the first response Grumpity gave was "time to grow up and mature". Earlier during introductions, she mentioned that she "had no power but is responsible for a bunch of things". She also said it is "crazy and ridiculous" that she has been with Linden Lab for 13 years.

Speculation: When Grumpity says "has no power", I suggest that means that in a privately owned business such as LL, the owner ultimately has ALL the power. Within her sphere, she has power. Note that the Lab Gab title places her name first and in the photo, she is flanked by Mojo and Patch.

Edited March 10, 2023 by diamond Marchant

[Ceka Cianci]

Today is the day we get the lab gab I take it?  Can't wait! \o/

ETA: I spoke too soon.. It's already here..

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Ceka Cianci

[benchthis]

26 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Stawberry (my fave) asked Grumpity why she changed from her "stick figure". Grumpity said a bunch of words that came down to "didn't like the way attachments attached to the stick figure" and "thought it would be cool to be a human" and "but I am slowly adding back the stick figure attachments".

yah that was cute, missing her other avi  she needs a stick plushie or BoM tat. 

Sounds like new linden homes will be ready for sl20b? Lot of users going to like the ability to change land settings to adjust scripted agent access levels. Mobile viewer looks great. Ylands is very fun on mobile viewer. The only problem with ylands is can't play with people who use other platform. Like I could not play on my ipad with someone playing pc. I think they might have been working on way around that. Things run so much better on apps. be neat to build in a step tracker so when you step in real life the phone or tablet registers those steps and moves avatar? That would be fun use of mobile tech. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by benchthis