Desmond Shang

Boots on the ground, this is a much rosier story than I've heard from many, many merchants, land barons and even consumers. It also does not reflect the business realities I've faced. Merchants. Word from most merchants is that the new search devastated their sales. It may even be a 'better' search. But how it's better, if in fact it is, isn't communicated well. The quality merchants generally struggle against highly questionable operations who have one skill: keeping up with gaming search. At least in the old days it was easier to spot. Now? I've had numerous merchant~tenants simply throw in the towel, rather than try to keep up with the shifting sands of search optimisation. There wasn't any tier relief. We can't say "whoops, tier is late" even while search isn't functional. Consumers. Along with the generally honest consumers on the grid, there is an emergent culture of "you are a sucker if it's not free" consumers developing... some would say already a formidable army on the grid. Does anyone have any idea how *long* people can get by using abandoned land, ripped items and so forth? It's essentially forever. Lax enforcement has bred a culture along with it, and that is now paying its dividends. I don't mind 'free' per se; there's an acceptable place for that. But I do mind when I see yet another merchant destroyed because their entire product line has been ripped *again* and *again*... it doesn't take a filed DMCA to be processed each time, when the criminals are so incredibly blatant. Confidence. It was great to hear that tier wouldn't change for the next year going forward. So long as you weren't a nonprofit, of course. Hey, I'm a land baron, and I directly compete against those who would abuse nonprofit pricing to compete against me. But to smack educators with a phenomenal price hike during a phase when most legitimate operators can do *absolutely nothing about it* midyear ~ well, who is next? And then to offer to lock in their rates if they pay up immediately ~ who made that decision? Are they so completely out of touch with their customers? Whatever ills there were going on that I'm not aware of ~ congrats, I now feel like I'm doing business under the very worst kind of third world 'government' possible. The very people who *would* have been your biggest supporters... never got the chance. Fundamentals. So $L were oversold for years, which culminated in the LindeX disaster last spring, amongst other things. Now the economic stats have gone dark. That's very dry news that few seem to care about, but I have to wonder, who is at the helm of the economic ship? Reports of stability don't mean a hill of beans. The housing market and Madoff investments were rock stable... until they were not. Taking raw number reports away from us is a bad, bad sign. This is like a report on poppy production in Afghanistan, without even mentioning the situation on the ground. As someone dedicated to being here over the long haul, and still in most ways the biggest fanboy of them all... I'm deeply concerned. Like it or not, the residents and Linden Research are defacto partners when it comes to the success of the grid. It hasn't been very rosy lately. And that's fine, it's been a tough economy. But the first critical step to recovery is admitting the problem: many of these woes were self~inflicted by egregiously bad policy decisions. Hey, I'm eager to help. I have a very deep personal stake in the success of this world. But I would really like to see more transparency, so I can tell if I'm (a) able to make a difference in a positive way or (b) simply enabling a course of action that will make things worse. The common wisdom is that Second Life is winding down. New shiny won't change that. What will change that, is a sense that our actions here matter, that we as residents by and large are trusted partners, that our equity won't evaporate and that our future won't be gambled upon a post~resident corporate dream which will never, ever come to pass. Desmond Shang, Guvnah Independent State of Caledon

Very refreshing to see an actual discussion here, regardless of viewpoints/approaches. That's the first step forward. Well done! I have some hope now

Q, I've extended to you the courtesy and respect of frank honesty. If I thought less of you, I wouldn't waste time here. My point (I don't know about others) might have been a bit too subtle. Let me spell it out as clearly as I can. And to be crystal clear: this is meant in an *entirely* constructive manner. That said: let me try to clarify. a) The Options question comes about from trying to design the perfect viewer for everybody. b) A one viewer design for everybody probably isn't going to work out very well for anybody (I think this is somewhat obvious) c) The complex, optioned solution has always been there. In stark terms: there have been X hundred million hours of user experience with the old style viewer and its dizzying array of options. Could it be better? Sure. But changing it substantially makes about as much sense as forcibly swapping querty keyboards for more efficient dvorak ones. d) For the simple viewer, embrace the simplicity you are looking for. Strip off nearly everything except what a brand new user would need in the first ten minutes and put an "Advanced" button to toggle on there, when they are ready for more. That's about the only way you'll get close to a universal viewer solution. And that advanced view should look fairly familiar to oldbies. It doesn't have to be exactly the same. But if it's not close enough, they will keep doing exactly what they are doing now: ditch your design entirely for third party viewers. Rendering the entire effort a waste of time. * * * * * Hey, it's a holiday weekend, this is a text discussion where tone is hard to read, and by posting on the blog as a Linden it risks earning the legacy of all who have gone before you: the residents have a nearly knee~jerk expectation that they will be ignored, in lieu of some very bad decisions to follow. This isn't your fault, it's just a painful reality of customer~facing communication here in 2010. As technical people, you aren't (really) being paid to pet the customers, you are usually hired on to get the job done right, and get it done effectively. Most corporations would shield people in a job like yours behind management, focus groups and locked doors. Linden Research is different. As such, we all have to act differently to take advantage of this. I'm not going to be thin~skinned about a frank reply from you... and likewise, you can't be thin~skinned about what we say. Even if some of it doesn't seem constructive. As for what Yoz is saying there... I get it, and I think most of us get it. There are ridiculous numbers of longtime industry professionals here. I've had to design life~critical user interfaces myself (most of which have been maintained as effective since the early 90's) and face far worse feedback than this. It's not fun, it's a job. My end users were automotive, industrial and military, often operators of heavy equipment or infantry warfighters ~ they didn't 'do' subtle or gentle feedback. I've managed engineering departments with several design teams, and my background is lightweight compared to some of the other people posting here. But even though what Yoz is saying is true... it's not enough. Yes, QA is a challenge. But it can't be a deciding factor, unless you want to turn out something less useful to the average user than a third party viewer knocked out by some college student over Code Red, cold pizza and Hacker's Quarterly. If you need QA help... simply call on your greatest resource ~ us. I was one of the, oh, maybe 100 people who previewed v2.0 when it came out, and then next thing you know... it was out. We shouldn't have been 100 people, we should have been 100,000. The incredibly early (and largely adopted) suggestions we made in Preview weren't acted upon until the viewer was made the default viewer anyway... this was clearly a case of "we the designers are right, you the users are wrong and you guys will just have to adapt." Development was done right for years the traditional way: all users were provided both a stable version and a newer, less quality assured version to download and give feedback about. It's time to go back to that. As someone who does business on the grid... I'm forced to use whatever the standard official viewer is, due to liability concerns. Like it or not, we are stuck with each other; I can't afford to put my account within range of a malicious coding team. A *lot* of us are in the same boat. We don't want to be contrarian, but on the other hand the v2.x decision was like being told we will drive a minivan in the future (or take our chances on say, Emerald) when what we needed was a four wheel drive pickup truck. It's not just harming us directly, it's interfering with taking care of our resident customers too. So yes, it's likely you'll see some passion on this issue. It runs deep. One resident on my estate had an entire course curriculum designed around v1.x, with university students trained and in process. With the forced change, she had *zero* time, grant money or classroom hours to switch over. Hey, change is necessary sometimes. But it was brutally clear to her that she wasn't dealing with a reliable corporate partner after that experience. I'm sure you can guess where her expectations are right now, and what selection of viewers she will use. Presuming she stays. This is where business 101 matters, and overrides all technical considerations. She was training entire classrooms of students in the use of your product. If I could, I'd buy your group a round of your favourite on a Friday afternoon... and just might, if I find myself in the area. All I ask is that you guys are completely straight up with me (and it seems you are, so far ~ I'm not thin skinned) and I shall be competely genuine and honest with you. That's the highest form of respect I can show. Desmond Shang Independent State of Caledon --||-

Something to consider: ~ There have been X million users, who have spent Y million hours using the older viewer format. Now I'll be the first person to say that the older viewer format isn't all that good. Come to think of it, standard typewriter keyboard layouts are proven to be terrible (dvorak is better), cars aren't done very well either (legacy of horse and buggy days), and I won't even begin to touch upon legacy computer operating systems. They are all terrible, with studies providing the proof. But the point remains, *changing* the way that software works for students, for educators who invested time in training students, for businesses who invested in training, for casual users who have grown accustomed over several years... well, this is going to come at a cost. Changing the UI out from underneath core customers is neither fast, nor easy, nor fun for them. And customers will gravitate toward fast, easy and fun. At bottom, the typical SL customer is going to wonder what to do for their evening ~ SL competes for time, against such varied things as World of Warcraft, games like Starcraft 2 and even television. This isn't to say I think we should run on the old interface forever. But if it's not an option for a veeeery long time going forward, someone's flunked business 101. We need at least two interfaces. One that will be friendly to new residents, and one that will be friendly to the paying customers. This may seem hard or difficult to do. I'm sure it is.