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One simple rule that can save Second Life:


Josh Susanto
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"NO feature shall be added while ANY support ticket remains open."

Is there anything unclear about this?

Is there any reason to object to it?

I know that something like this has been suggested before. But I'm not suggesting it as a "guideline".

I'm suggesting that all LL employees be required to sign it as a contract addendum, and that anyone caught even trying to deploy new features while any support ticker remains open be terminated with prejudice. 

It should be the first thing listed in new employment contracts, and it should be posted on every wall, in letters as large as the wall will allow. 

It undeniably would have prevented the ongoing incident.

And really, anyway, what could it hurt?

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It's internally self-conflicting Josh.

Direct Delivery was designed and released to fix the ongoing and never-ending issues with Magic Boxes. According to your rule, LL could never release a feature fix for a problem because .. well .. because the problem it was meant to fix exists and there are tickets open on it.

I know you think DD is major fail. But when you begin to realize how much of the old XStreet code they had to recreate in order to make DD work, you start to have a whole different perspective.

We've already determined they had to mess with permissions, with the viewer, with Sim code. They had to completely rewrite product delivery logic (leaving in place MB delivery for now), the payment processor and the feed into the sales transaction records.

They had to extend records and emails to include what type of delivery was used and where the products would show up.

They had to rewrite the ANS system.

They had to create a whole new product upload logic flow, and it had to automatically handle automatic replacement of existing items when new uploads for the same thing came in through DD. They had to create the "View Contents" feature and add several new panels and menus to deal with product replacements and they also had to implement fully the Unassociated Items logic.

Oh yeah, and they had to hook the whole thing onto an existing skeleton called Spree.

They did a lot. They did take a while, but they managed to get a lot done in a very good manner.

You may think it's major fail all the way around. But as a programmer, project manager and tech support manager at various times in my professional career, I think they did pretty good.

ESPECIALLY when I compare this release to when Marketplace first rolled out .. I suspect the actual effort involved in DD was much more than that involved in MP .. yet it was released far less "broken" than MP at rollout.

So .. when exactly are you leaving SL and heading over to IMVU? After all, it works MUCH better than SL and anyone staying here is just enabling LL's massive ripoff scheme, right? Isn't that what you're doing by continuing to stay here and subject yourself to their malfeasance and obviously criminal intent?

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>Direct Delivery was designed and released to fix the ongoing and never-ending issues with Magic Boxes

Untrue.

The Magic Box problem was invented in order to promote the DD project.

Magic Boxes work just fine in ANY sim, if they are first attached to an avatar on Linden land, and they always have. 



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Josh Susanto wrote:

>
Direct Delivery was designed and released to fix the ongoing and never-ending issues with Magic Boxes

Untrue.

The Magic Box problem was invented in order to promote the DD project.

Magic Boxes work just fine in ANY sim, if they are first attached to an avatar on Linden land, and they always have. 

How do you explain the fact that the errors you claim were "manufactured" existed before LL purchased SL Exchange? How do you explain that people have been complaining about them since before LL got involved?

And no Josh, simply repeating it as many times as you do does not make it true. Those of us that actually pay attention and arrived in SL before the site changed hands remember ALL too well how problematic they were then and still are now.

But you are accomplishing one thing .. whether it's your goal or not only you know for sure ... but you ARE turning me into a Linden Lab Apologist simply because I'm getting tired of your incessant insane conspiracy-laden rants.

Tone it down .. please? It's getting obnoxious.

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Darrius,

I think many people agree that DD is an ambitious project - and if DD worked (or will eventually work) as it was reportedly designed it would be far superior to magic boxes. There is no doubt that it will solve many problems that have existed for some time.

But the reality of DD right now is a serious marketplace problem far worse than what was happening prior to this date with magic boxes.  It appears untested and rushed (even though we all know it was beta tested).  And now merchants are faced with even more nightmarish headaches rather than a functioning system with some bugs (some bugs are bound to pop-up afterall).

DD as it was advertised to us is still a pipedream at this point.

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>How do you explain the fact that the errors you claim were "manufactured" existed before LL purchased SL Exchange?

The boxes were being rezzed on sims, not as avatar attachments.

That made them susceptible to borking. 

Mystery solved.

>How do you explain that people have been complaining about them since before LL got involved?

LL was always involved because the boxes always had to be rezzed somewhere, which always involved LL. 

>And no Josh, simply repeating it as many times as you do does not make it true. Those of us that actually pay attention and arrived in SL before the site changed hands remember ALL too well how problematic they were then and still are now.

As do I. 

I only wish it had occurred to me sooner to just see what the box does when it's rezzed as an avatar attachment on Linden land. That's actually how they work best. My boxes on multiple sims each with fewer than 100 items turned out not to work as well as one box with 700 freebies attached to my avatar while on Linden land. 

>But you are accomplishing one thing .. whether it's your goal or not only you know for sure ... but you ARE turning me into a Linden Lab Apologist simply because I'm getting tired of your incessant insane conspiracy-laden rants.

OK,Great.

How would YOU explain my findings, and how would YOU explain that I'm running my store all this week with even fewer problems than usual while so many other people are getting so badly screwed?

>Tone it down .. please? It's getting obnoxious.

Maybe I'll tone it down if they finally fix something.

Fair?

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>There is no doubt that it will solve many problems that have existed for some time.

It already has.

Since the DD deployment, my Magic Boxes seem to be working better than ever.

And I'm rather confident that this is precisely what explains the urgency to shut them off. 

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>Josh's threat to leave Second Life and go to IMVU

Insignificant. 

I'll be doing A LOT more than going to IMVU if LL doesn't start walking the walk. 

I just thought that would be a good first step because I just spent 5 years trying to persuade every IMVU user I meet to come to Second Life.

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>Just leave, OK?

Oh - I'm not leaving.

That's way too much like giving them exactly what they want.

I'm definitely staying around to suck more money out of the system while I sleep, and to recruit merchants and other users for any and all media that will compete with this place. 

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Darrius Gothly wrote:


Josh Susanto wrote:

>
Direct Delivery was designed and released to fix the ongoing and never-ending issues with Magic Boxes

Untrue.

The Magic Box problem was invented in order to promote the DD project.

Magic Boxes work just fine in ANY sim, if they are first attached to an avatar on Linden land, and they always have. 

How do you explain the fact that the errors you claim were "manufactured" existed before LL purchased SL Exchange? How do you explain that people have been complaining about them since before LL got involved?

And no Josh, simply repeating it as many times as you do does not make it true. Those of us that actually pay attention and arrived in SL before the site changed hands remember ALL too well how problematic they were then and still are now.

But you are accomplishing one thing .. whether it's your goal or not only you know for sure ... but you ARE turning me into a Linden Lab Apologist simply because I'm getting tired of your incessant insane conspiracy-laden rants.

Tone it down .. please? It's getting obnoxious.

That's how this apologist thing starts. First the rants get to you, causing you to choose what seems to be the saner side.

Then you find that the saner side just isn't performing no matter what you do, and doesn't match up to your own experiences, skill sets and other companies and services that you deal with. In short there's a chasm-sized disconnect going on there.

Then one day you wake up and find yourself taking administrative and business feedback from someone with a business degree that admits to spending that knowledge by flipping burgers for 5 years and wears boxes on their head.

Quote Heinlein, it'll cause the intellectuals to put you into an erroneous box, but it will remind you that horse sense can't be bought, borrowed, stolen or acquired by social networking skills and that it did indeed once exist. When someone analyzes your Heinlein, compare the analyst's lifetime accomplishments against Heinlein and snicker with gusto.

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Lera Keng wrote:

Darrius,

I think many people agree that DD is an ambitious project - and if DD worked (or will eventually work) as it was reportedly designed it would be far superior to magic boxes. There is no doubt that it will solve many problems that have existed for some time.

But the reality of DD right now is a serious marketplace problem far worse than what was happening prior to this date with magic boxes.  It appears untested and rushed (even though we all know it was beta tested).  And now merchants are faced with even more nightmarish headaches rather than a functioning system with some bugs (some bugs are bound to pop-up afterall).

DD as it was advertised to us is still a pipedream at this point.

(Beware .. Wall-O-Text follows. You have been warned!)

This is a problem that LL has had since time immemorial ... the lack of good Beta Testing. (Which runs in parallel with good Software QA.)

When they were first searching for Beta Testers, they required the signing of an extremely restrictive NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement .. basically a "keep your mouth shut or else" contract.) I refused to sign for various reasons, not the least of which was that I had other efforts ongoing that would have been in direct conflict with the NDA or would have been severely restricted by the NDA.

However, they also did not use the Beta Testers properly. It was the same thing when MP was released; again they had a Beta Test Group but the software on release day was seriously hosed. Glaring rookie mistakes and textual issues that anyone actually testing the software would have caught. So my only conclusion had to be, they didn't actually USE the people that were signed on to use it. (Or they didn't use the feedback from them.)

This mentality, of having a testing group and then not actually using them, is way too common in companies that started out as "Garage Programming Inc." type enterprises ... and LL is exactly that. It's a mindset that goes way beyond NIH (Not Invented Here) and shares some facets of that common malady, but is inspired by a very different way of thinking.

With NIH, there is an ego-centric attitude that cries out "No one is as good as me" ... and thus ideas, suggestions, bug reports are disregarded because ... well .. "there just can't be bugs because I wrote that code."

With the Garage Programming mindset, the department / programmers cloister themselves into a hole, rarely speak to anyone else, and pretty much forget there are others outside the circle intended to help out. It's not so much willful disuse as it is inadvertant forgetfulness.

DD took a very long time to be released. In that initial start up time, they had to be so busy just laying in the groundwork and foundations that they got in the habit of going it alone. Then when they started getting nearer to the end, they'd already established the habit of not running it past the Beta Testers. In essence they just didn't avail themselves of the resource.

The other dynamic that feeds into that is the feeling that "if I take time now to stop programming, educate the testers and then let them pound on it, by the time we get done with all that I will be weeks behind ... and I hate being behind."

Yes, it's a bad habit and it really needs to be broken. They need a professional software project manager to oversee all their internal programming projects .. and that someone has to have nerves of steel to stand up to the ingrained patterns, enforce strict adherence to the "Rules" .. and then withstand the withering attacks from those unhappy with the changes. (And if you think SL Resi's are resistant to change, you've never seen a gaggle of programmers whine.)

So in short (like I could ever say anything "short") It was more an outcome of the pattern of behavior and anyone could have predicted it. In fact, I think quite a few did.

Now, these latest issues, problems springing up anew and errors mounting, getting worse and worse by the day ... I think that's purely panic showing its ugly face. They are acutely aware that they're under some serious pressure. They are slamming code around, trying to make stuff work, and making mistakes in the process. As my mom used to say "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get." I would not be surprised to find out that there's been some serious oopsies made with the database or the text editor that are so blatant no one can see them; especially not in their current state of panic.

This is the time in a project where the manager takes everyone on a half-day "stay-cation" and does everything they can to lessen the feeling of panic, organize the problems and the solutions .. and NOT let anyone run off half-cocked. This is when managerial and organizational skills are at their most valuable. I'm afraid that, even though they seriously want to get it right, they do not have the internal management able to grab them by the shorthairs and keep everyone calm and cool headed.

We will eventually see the problems with DD resolved. We will eventually see the surrounding and newly created problems resolved. We will eventually see the past errors that are showing up again due to new stresses vanquished. But it's not going to happen in a rational, planned and executed manner.

So who do I blame for this current state of affairs? LL Upper Management. I don't know what their internal organization looks like, but I'm betting Rodvik is too high up the ladder, and I'm sure there has to be someone between Brooke and Rodvik. That's the person I'm aiming my finger at. That is the person responsible for staffing the middle level project management team and giving them the guidance and resources they need to accomplish a task, and enough resources to pass around to the grunt staff to do their jobs well.

From what I know, Brooke is not a Programming Department Manager. She came from a different environment altogether, and the fact that they've actually released DD speaks well to her ability to corral a group of wild-n-crazy coders. But if her boss had instead hired and placed a true programming manager in charge of the effort, this current situation wouldn't have happened.

Again this is a bad habit that LL has developed. Rather than hire staff that are truly skilled to do the job, they "make do" with whomever happens to be handy at the moment. In Brooke's case, she was handy when the Marketplace was released, and she's been locked in place there doing the best she can.

I'm not trying to get her fired .. honest. I just think they should have someone with real background in this sort of management role to oversee all the programming efforts underway there. To date, they don't and I don't see any rush to get someone of that caliber either.

Yeah, DD is still a pipedream. But at least this pipedream is lit and puffing smoke. It will be some time yet before it gets all smoothed out. Trashing them and cranking up the panic and pain and pressure on them won't do a dang bit of good.

We have been doing a good job at alerting them to new issues, and they are apparently trying to resolve them. It just won't be tomorrow before the pipe dream lands on both feet and starts pulling its weight for real. Rather than trash them, I'd prefer letting them know what needs fixing, keeping them focused on the priorities .. and resisting the desire to eviscerate them just because they missed a spot.

And it DAMN sure won't do any good to throw out the whole thing either. For what purpose? So someone else can come in and start working on something new with a whole new team and a whole new mindset .. and a whole new set of the "same old" management problems? Nahhh ... we've come this far. I'm content to stay the course and keep shining lights on the path they need to follow, drawing circles around the problems that need fixing .. and gently pushing while praising to keep them energized and enthused on making this one work.

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Duly noted. I do still have my "Intervention Crew" nearby should I start taking the impossible side. And I'm still contemplating what exactly I'm gonna say about that totally bone headed advice to "delete the pictures that are wrong" from CTL earlier today. ("Seriously? Start whacking at an already trashed pointer structure? Are you flipping MAD?!?")

But yeah, I can see the slippery slope ahead of me .. and I have awakened in a cold sweat wondering just how I got here. I'll do my best to avoid the trap. Thank you for the heads up Dart.

(and here's a plastic grocery bag to throw over my head and drag me off to rehab should I start spouting truly impossible concepts as "hard proven fact.") LOL

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>"delete the pictures that are wrong"

Precisely.

How is my own suggestion (given even before the deployment) of re-migrating back to the Magic Boxes any less sensible?

Moreover, simply asking people to refrain from further migration to DD until further notice would be a really easy step to take that might save a lot of people a lot of trouble, but they haven't even done that.

And how much work could it possibly be to take down the bear picture?

I mean - what's not wrong about the bear picture, and if people are supposed to delete other pictures that are wrong... well maybe you can see my point?

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>1. There is more than one team working to deliver features.

That would never matter if there were one competent person assigned to decide when to deploy the developments.

The rule I suggest would eliminate most of the bad decisions possible, making that person more competent.

2. SLX served SL faithfully for years without scrambling the database. Short of LL banning third party marketplaces another shall rise. Period

The apologists cite volume and bandwidth as explaining the reduced performance.

But they fail to explain why the boxes don't fail when attached to avatars while on Linden land. 

Moreover, the apologists also cite bandwidth and volume as explaining  DD failures during mass migration.

And how many people do you think are still frantically migrating the the obviously broken system after it's been obviousñy broken for more than a week?

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