Linden Lab gone dark again ?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

11 minutes ago, Starberry Passion said:

Soft Linden hangs out on Twitter, they are very kind, I can assure you. Might not talk to them all the time, but they use to hang out in Second Life in group chats, talk to us, Make jokes. They're pretty chill.

I have had nothing but pleasant and positive interactions with Soft, as brief and few as they were, so I have no reason to doubt you.

[discussionbot]

3 hours ago, Starberry Passion said:

It has everything to do with why one would become silent, if they are busy. If you are working, you don't have time to reply to a call. It's the same thing.

Absolutely, I think people are being so hard on them for no reason. It’s a little start up company new to the scene working from their garage with limited staff wearing multiple hats trying to deliver us a great metaverse, cut them some slack guys 

[Qie Niangao]

We understand why Strawberry wasn't posting recently and why she mothballed her personal site, etc., but do we have a better understanding of the reason the Blogger Network is in hiatus? Is it for the same reason? Seems the timeline is different though, right?

It's not that I'm going to particularly miss the Blogger Network. It was sometimes handy to get those results when searching—a bit more selective than just throwing a query at a web-wide AI-"augmented" search engine—but that probably doesn't get much use. And as long as newbies can find Inara Pey's blog, the grid should survive.

But I still wonder why, and why now.

[Kylie Jaxxon]

4 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

They seem to like it, but for me it's one of the problems.
Being friendly to your customers ... great ( but to ALL without differencec)... being friends with them, a very bad idea.

Totally agree!! 

 

Edited August 2 by Kylie Jaxxon
OT

[Love Zhaoying]

6 hours ago, PheebyKatz said:

Maybe we're all approaching this from the wrong angle. Consider this possibility:

When they don't say what's going on, everyone freaks out. When they only tell a little bit, and/or are vague about it all, everyone gets suspicious. When they announce for all to see that they're doing something they think will be great, everyone picks on them and says it's stupid or will never work.

They may have simply gotten tired of trying to talk to us.

The reaction is going to be almost identical regardless of the message.

[Sid Nagy]

IMHO LL needs at least 1 professional communicator to deal with all their social media and a lot of Lindens should be restricted to communicate at all under their company Linden name or only when invited by the communication Linden(s).
Company communications should not be in the hands of all, when they feel like it or have occasional some time for it.
Communications is a specific job, just like coding, managing progress or preparing meals for the cantina.

[Streex Foxtrot]

16 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

IMHO LL needs at least 1 professional communicator to deal with all their social media and a lot of Lindens should be restricted to communicate at all under their company Linden name or only when invited by the communication Linden(s).
Company communications should not be in the hands of all, when they feel like it or have occasional some time for it.
Communications is a specific job, just like coding, managing progress or preparing meals for the cantina.

This 10,000 times, this. 

[Always Incognito]

13 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

It must be really weird at times to go to work and know there's a forum talking about everything you do 

Imagine doing your RL job and then strangers on a forum connected to your workplace saying "We haven't heard from (you) in weeks...they've probably been fired! Actually...the whole company's closing down!"  

I guess you havent played any mmorpg game or other games? This forum is like kindergarten compared to the forums in some pvp games iv played. I think LL know they have to abide with some ”side effects” like forums in a business like this. And deal with it professionally.. Ppl like to be able to vent and it can be worse not to let them (though moderation is necessary ofc). I dont defend ppl that are behaving badly in forums, in an ideal world we would all be nice to each others 24/7 but this is what it is atm. 🤷‍♀️

[Feorie Frimon]

7 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

They seem to like it, but for me it's one of the problems.
Being friendly to your customers ... great ( but to ALL without differencec)... being friends with them, a very bad idea.

I 100% agree with this. You can’t ’be friends with residents’ as a Linden if you ever want to be perceived as a fair company that isn’t involved in favoritism (and nepotism).

Thats basic business. 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Feorie Frimon said:

I 100% agree with this. You can’t ’be friends with residents’ as a Linden if you ever want to be perceived as a fair company that isn’t involved in favoritism (and nepotism).

Thats basic business. 

There's always Alts and just "not telling people about your LL identity".

[Feorie Frimon]

2 hours ago, Streex Foxtrot said:

This 10,000 times, this. 

A friend was mentioning this the other day (I won’t say the name but it’s your idea and it’s good!!!).

SL needs someone that is focused on PR and resident relations - someone you can email these questions to and they’ll answer you (without calling you names). 

[Feorie Frimon]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

There's always Alts and just "not telling people about your LL identity".

True! I’m sure they have alts! I hope they do and they are out there exploring the world so they know who and what they are creating for. 

But every time I hear ‘I’m friends BLAH BLAH Linden’ I immediately wonder how they became ‘friends’? 

And then that they were ‘close enough friends’ to claim they understand that Lindens personality, motivations, and thoughts? 

WOW - they must talk a lot (and that’s called favoritism). 

[Cristiano Midnight]

8 hours ago, Starberry Passion said:

It has everything to do with why one would become silent, if they are busy. If you are working, you don't have time to reply to a call. It's the same thing.

Again, they are always busy. When there is suddenly no communication even from people whose job includes communicating, it is noticeable.

[Feorie Frimon]

Just now, Cristiano Midnight said:

Again, they are always busy. When there is suddenly no communication even from people whose job includes communicating, it is noticeable.

Thank you!
 

I love how everyone is acting like the Lab is this paragon of communication over here. LOL I guess Nike is too busy ‘working’ to respond or communicate? So are the Olympics and Coca-Cola and loads of other companies around the world?

I don’t know of a single SaaS company in world where the answer is “I’m working so hard right now that I don’t have to communicate with my customers. And if they get mad, I’m going to tell them to be quiet, chastise them, and tell then to stop being ungrateful.”

Second Life is a SaaS - Subscription As A Service. They are in the market of subscriptions and services - not friendships. 

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Feorie Frimon said:

But every time I hear ‘I’m friends BLAH BLAH Linden’ I immediately wonder how they became ‘friends’? 

And then that they were ‘close enough friends’ to claim they understand that Lindens personality, motivations, and thoughts? 

I always find it suspicious and annoying when people "brag" about having a source / friend at the Lab.

[Rat Luv]

1 hour ago, Always Incognito said:

I guess you havent played any mmorpg game or other games? 

No, none...I don't mean people should never criticise, just that I would sometimes feel weird as an LL employee when people guess what's going on. If it's anything like where I work IRL, management may be keeping  lots of moves secret, even from higher up employees 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Always Incognito said:

I guess you havent played any mmorpg game or other games? This forum is like kindergarten compared to the forums in some pvp games iv played. I think LL know they have to abide with some ”side effects” like forums in a business like this. And deal with it professionally.. Ppl like to be able to vent and it can be worse not to let them (though moderation is necessary ofc). I dont defend ppl that are behaving badly in forums, in an ideal world we would all be nice to each others 24/7 but this is what it is atm. 🤷‍♀️

Surely, the Lab / moderators and also mods for other MMPORGs know to "ignore" the "regular suspects" who rant and rave..

[Feorie Frimon]

4 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

We understand why Strawberry wasn't posting recently and why she mothballed her personal site, etc., but do we have a better understanding of the reason the Blogger Network is in hiatus? Is it for the same reason? Seems the timeline is different though, right?

It's not that I'm going to particularly miss the Blogger Network. It was sometimes handy to get those results when searching—a bit more selective than just throwing a query at a web-wide AI-"augmented" search engine—but that probably doesn't get much use. And as long as newbies can find Inara Pey's blog, the grid should survive.

But I still wonder why, and why now.

I am in the same boat.

I have buddies in marketing positions that would likely argue until they are blue in the face about how email marketing is soooooo much better. But me? I delete all of those newsletters (not just from SL but from everything). 
 

They must see better responses from emails being opened than the views on Blogger network stuff? That is truly intriguing! 
 

This sounds like it could be a cool topic for a round table with the marketing  team- ‘What we are doing and where we are going’. I bet a lot of bloggers would be there! it would be a great way to tell them how to help too (if they want). 

[Love Zhaoying]

7 minutes ago, Feorie Frimon said:

They must see better responses from emails being opened than the views on Blogger network stuff? That is truly intriguing! 

Not everyone consumes blogs.  I tend to see most blogs as "Vanity Projects" and unless they are vetted by people on the Forums as being "useful", I'll probably never visit any "LL-promoted" blogs.

People also come here and are "experts" apparently because they have a "blog". 🙂 (Versus some who do have actually helpful blogs that people can go use for "helpful reference", not just "news".)

 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

3 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

IMHO LL needs at least 1 professional communicator to deal with all their social media and a lot of Lindens should be restricted to communicate at all under their company Linden name or only when invited by the communication Linden(s).
Company communications should not be in the hands of all, when they feel like it or have occasional some time for it.
Communications is a specific job, just like coding, managing progress or preparing meals for the cantina.

Very much agree, and a lot of companies do this with their socials. Some have it down to a science where there's a very distinct and consistent "brand voice" in all of their public communications. So recognizable, that you can imagine how certain companies will react to different types of news (like, we know Wendy's will reply to McDonald's promos with their own special brand of catty snark).

Of course, the risk of doing it this way is if said employee goes rogue for whatever reason and causes mass destruction under the company name. Tweets suddenly start sounding very "off" and the entire account implodes in real-time, resulting in a massive PR disaster. We've seen that happen more than once. 👀

I still think the positives outweigh that rare possibility, though. It's consistent, and consistency is generally good.

[Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia]

13 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Not everyone consumes blogs.  I tend to see most blogs as "Vanity Projects" and unless they are vetted by people on the Forums as being "useful", I'll probably never visit any "LL-promoted" blogs.

People also come here and are "experts" apparently because they have a "blog". 🙂 (Versus some who do have actually helpful blogs that people can go use for "helpful reference", not just "news".)

It's a shame what happened to blogs.  They used to be great.  Now, they're full of bot spam and clickbait, and writers who want bigger audiences have to work in social media walled gardens.  Personally, I think the decline of RSS is what killed them.  Google Reader's cancellation was a terrible blow to the blogoverse.

I do think we have more experts here than most places, though.  I mean, nothing against in-world help groups, but if I get advice from somebody here, I take it more seriously than I do from most in-world help groups.

[Feorie Frimon]

18 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Not everyone consumes blogs.  I tend to see most blogs as "Vanity Projects" and unless they are vetted by people on the Forums as being "useful", I'll probably never visit any "LL-promoted" blogs.

People also come here and are "experts" apparently because they have a "blog". 🙂 (Versus some who do have actually helpful blogs that people can go use for "helpful reference", not just "news".)

 

I think the ‘blogger army’ is a powerful tool for SL. I agree, most of them are personal projects (mine is ramblings and DIY and plans lol), but there are a lot of people that learn through Second Life. 
 

I see an opportunity there to teach, have the learn, and create brand ambassadors. Look at how many people wanted to ‘know what happened to Strawberry’! 
 

I bet she has at least 100 people that would love to meet her (or Brett or whoever) to learn about the trends they see in social media, why they are focusing on what they are, how they plan to promote an event….tools they like to use…. etc. 

And not from an accusatory mean place, but from a ‘curious Q & A’ sort of place. A lot of these questions being asked aren’t mean or aggressive - people just want to know. 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Feorie Frimon said:

25 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Not everyone consumes blogs.  I tend to see most blogs as "Vanity Projects" and unless they are vetted by people on the Forums as being "useful", I'll probably never visit any "LL-promoted" blogs.

People also come here and are "experts" apparently because they have a "blog". 🙂 (Versus some who do have actually helpful blogs that people can go use for "helpful reference", not just "news".)

 

I think the ‘blogger army’ is a powerful tool for SL. I agree, most of them are personal projects (mine is ramblings and DIY and plans lol), but there are a lot of people that learn through Second Life. 

Maybe I should have included:

It seems to me that most of the "promoted blogs" are fashion, pictures of builds, etc.

Not, "Many people find this blog helpful because it guides you through a step-by-step process to [improve your Second Life]"

 

[Qie Niangao]

9 minutes ago, Feorie Frimon said:

This sounds like it could be a cool topic for a round table with the marketing  team- ‘What we are doing and where we are going’. I bet a lot of bloggers would be there! it would be a great way to tell them how to help too (if they want). 

If the Lab doesn't want to do Blogger Network stuff, maybe it should be taken up by a consortium of the bloggers it used to cover.

The blogger consortium could make use of the resources listed in the  Community Resources Portal, like maybe the Second Life Display Network "to get the word out via advertising on [LL's] web properties" with "many more [benefits] to come in the remainder of 2022." 

Or they could set up an installation at the Community Exhibition area of the Welcome Hub, with little MoaP screens showing blog pages and links to view in the visitor's browser. (That's only half in jest. Probably new users would benefit from the contents of some blogs, and get some inspiration knowing that SL residents are so engaged as to blog about the platform.)

I get it that blogs aren't the hot new medium, so maybe they're just too passé for a brave new SL brand. You go to war with the army you have, and I don't see a lot of residents enlisting for short-form SL dance videos, but maybe that's exactly what we need.

[Kylie Jaxxon]

54 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Surely, the Lab / moderators and also mods for other MMPORGs know to "ignore" the "regular suspects" who rant and rave..

I also think too, that some of the moles/Lindens used to be average residents, like us   They know and understand what we are talking about and how the company is with dealing with things.