[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

@Lamorna

< cynic >

I think this has to do with pre-existing plans already in place (reminder, this is an M Linden project- this was in the pipeline AGES ago.) to support a business decision (no comment on the quality of it) made by the lab to tie in with facebook, twitter and open ID logins.  I don't think this has anything(read:anything) to do with existing residents.  The "alleged benefits" are (theoretically) to the lab, not to existing residents.

 

/cynic

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@Jopsy

 

Woah there.  Hangon one sec.

"I haven't yet heard a compelling argument saying that the number of successful attempts is guaranteed to go up."

Just a reminder that this particular brand of fraud is perhaps the least likely to occur (I agree, it's likely to be quite rare.)  But that other kinds of damage are again, much more likely and can be *just as costly* to the person being impersonated.  Like I said a bunch of posts back, SL is made up of small ponds.  All it takes is for your name to be tainted in one or more of those ponds in which you swim (for lack of a better analogy) in order for it to cause serious consequences.  The issue again, is not the person who *is* harassed(we've always had a solution for that. It's called mute.). It's the person the fraudster is *imitating* who incurs the damage.

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

However, their boondoggle with charging for SLExchange listings was quietly forgotten. But I suspect that it will rear its ugly head after they get through moving to the new site. Right now it's a complete and utter mess operationally speaking so charging for listings could still be years away.

 

@FrankLee

Don't. Get. Me. Started.

I have over 500 listings, and fully half of them are so borked in the migration I will have to basically redo them from scratch, but I'm afraid to touch anything until after 10/6 for fear of screwing up the listings on the old site which WORK. (and about 80% of all my sales come from Xstreetslxwhatevertheyrecallingittoday.)

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

Hell, Im still trying to figure out what the pros are.  The once a week limit completely screws this "feature" up for roleplayers, and the feature itself is irrelevant to those who wanted an actual name change.  The only true pro that I can see is the Unicode support, which is valuable to those who use language characters other than western English.  However titlers already did that.

Oh wait, titlers did... all of this already.

So gang, here's a little twist.  It's been announced that Avatars United is being shut down.

 

.....anyone wanna take a bet that that little announcement and this "feature" are somehow related (though not necessarily at the exact same time.).  Cause for me? Survey says YEP.

Also, I just am going to throw in and say that I am already confident that aside from Ann's suggestion about coloring display/usernames differently, this feature is going to roll out *exactly* as it currently is, and no matter what we think or say makes a kidney bean's worth of difference.  Just sayin.

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@Insight

 

One not need be famous grid wide. All of SL is in essence, a niche market. All it takes is to ruin that niche.  It doesn't *need* to ruin the entire grid.  It only needs to do it in one very small part to make a big difference to that particular person or their business.  I know it may seem hard for you to believe, but quite a number of people, more than you imagine, use the money they earn in SL to pay *RL* expenses.  It's not a small matter to them.

 

ETA: (sorry FrankLee, I didnt mean to append this to your post.)

Also @Insight - I agree, it's about big fish in small ponds. But all of SL is made up of small ponds.  That's the point people are trying to make with varying success.  Very few businesses are generic enough to cross over to having gridwide appeal.  Most are operating within a small(relative) sphere of influence.  Once that's been tainted significantly, the pond is poisoned.

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@Insight

 

The way it's meant to work is the Firstname Lastname convention that has been the norm so far will be abandoned in favor of Username Resident (where the word Resident would replace what formerly would be a last name.) So instead, for example of "Steve Homewood" someone would be "steve872.resident" (for example.

 

That username (as terrible as it may be) is unique.  It cannot be changed. In addition, current Firstname Lastname combinations would be changed to firstname.lastname. So your username becomes insight.homewood. That username cannot be changed.

 

However display names can be anything at all.  They are NOT meant to be distinct or unique.  So as many people as want it, can call themselves Insight Homewood as a display name. I hope that clears it up.

 

However no one is actually concerned about the people being taken in, as they are about who the person is imitating.  Example: Someone is running around with a display name of Insight Homewood, and does something crummy.  The person they behaved poorly toward was taken in, and according to you, isn't using too many brain cells.  Now, that may very well be true- but anyone who has been in SL long enough can tell you that will happen with fair regularity- people are not always careful, observant or smart.

That, IMO isn't the actual problem. The PROBLEM comes when this Not Very Observant or smart person runs around telling everyone they can about how horrible *YOU* (because again, they believed that person was you) were to them.  Word like that travels quickly, and you find that no matter how hard you try, you may not always be able to correct this mistaken information.  It's not the person who was fooled who ultimately suffers.  It's YOU, the person that was being imitated. It doesn;t matter whether the person who was fooled has been in SL 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years. If they're running around saying *you* did (whatever it was) because someone was deliberately using your username as a display name the damage is still the same- not done to the person fooled, but to you, the person imitated.

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@Phoebe

 

Oh if only the new marketplace weren't such a complete mess... (that disaster may actually be worse than this one.)

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@Jopsy

 

I don't disagree with you at all on that, but you must admit that in this case, the lack of fairness in and of itself is not the issue. The actual issue is the lack of fairness illustrates a principle- that LL *knows* that this plan is problematic, for the very reasons people are objecting to it.  That telling us (in any way) "oh no this will be perfectly fine" is false on its face. If it weren't this step to protect the Linden name would not be necessary.

I don't care that it isn't fair. I care that there's a lack of fundamental truths being admitted to here.

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@om

 

Sorry om, I meant that in general to everyone who has put voting out there today.  Unfortunately the way the blog/comment software works here there's no good way to indicate that.

 

@Menolly

(again, I always reiterate this because I hate to sound like Im defending this idea- Im not), but if they make this a paid feature, it completely defeats what LL is trying to do by implementing it.  This is about new users, not existing users. New users don't want to pay for an account as it is- if they find out they will have to pay for one just to use a display name, there goes all those potential new user dreams up in particles, er.. smoke. The only way this is going to roll is as a free feature. Further, blocking existing usernames likewise defeats their purpose- it's why they didn't put it on the table to begin with. Jack made that point super clear in the last pose about this "feature".  I agree with you- it's going to roll no matter what.  But I think the only thing that might *might* (maybe, possibly) convince them is to make blocking a name from being used as a display name as a paid feature.  Because that, more than anything else they've ever cooked up might actually get them paid accounts.  With this, as in everything else... follow the money. Sad, but true.

 

-AK

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Cluephone, gang:

 

Voting on this "feature" isnt on the table. They're not going to put it on the table.

Removing this "feature" isn't on the table. They're not going to put it on the table.

They have made it abundantly clear that this "feature" is going to roll out no matter what any and all current residents think because (I'll say it again) this has nothing to do with current residents.  It has to do with potential future residents.  LL believes that two in the bush is better than one in the hand.

The only thing we can hope to do here is damage control.  That's it.

 

-AK

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@FrankLee

 

Pfft. Stop with your Earth logic and your making sense.  We'll have none of *that* here, (obviously.)

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@Ponsonby

I think they're creating a PR nightmare either way.  I don't think there's any way to spin this that makes them look good.  I don't disagree with you at all- I just don't think there's any way to turn this sow's ear into a silk purse no matter what.  At least this way we'd have the ability to protect ourselves. The other way the press is no better, and we all get screwed (except you know, if your name is Linden, because those got protected.  Yeah right, there's gonna be *no problem with this at all!*  *eyeroll*)

 

-AK

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@Ponsonby

 

I figure Im already paying for a premium account and getting precisely nothing in return for it- this at least would give me some value for the money.

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Far be it from me to defend LL here (because again, I dont think this is defensible),but charging people to change their display name accomplishes *precisely the opposite* of what LL is setting out to acheive.  The goal of allowing this whole display name business is to entice *new people* to join SL.  Again, current residents are not their primary focus here.   If you make this a paid only feature, it will entice precisely *no one* to join SL, as it would mean they would have to get a paid account on signup to use the feature.

I still think the solution is the reverse of this- to make it a paid feature, or charge a fee to prevent a username from being used as a display name. This allows LL to continue to run down the garden path they've set for themselves, while allowing people to make sure their names are protected, and would *absolutely* cause an upsurge in paid accounts.

-AK

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@Wayfinder:

 

(Wayfinder wrote: "I for one, would like to hear why they didn't just take the easy route and give us what we asked for in the first place... the ability  to change our actual names.  That seems like such an easy and basic  solution, one has to wonder why they're using this "around the bend and  backwards" approach.")

For real? You don't know?  Ok.  I'll break it down:

Anything that this has to do with current residents is *incidental*.  "Display names" only addresses current residents as a badly tacked on afterthought. You're right- people were asking for the ability to *change their names*.  Even the links Torley provided us in the previous post bore that out and showed it to be true.

This plan has precisely *nothing* to do with current residents save as an "Oh and yeah, this might work okay for people already here, too. At least it might shut them up a while...".  The Display Name Project has to do with trying to give SL the ability to connect inworld with existing social media systems like facebook and twitter.  It also gives the ability for RL business and .edu interests to use their *real names* in the SL environment. It's the hope of LL that allowing such a thing will entice these groups to join SL, and interface RL/SL interests.  It has *zippidydoodah* to do with those of us already here.

The technical solution of a name change token is actually complicated. It's really a pain in the ass, technically, which is one of the reasons it was never addressed before. But theyre not addressing it *now*, either. This plan has nothing to do with that. It's leveraging current residents (and their reputations via their names) vs. the hope of potential future residents (who IMO aren't going to come and stay in SL anyway, but that's where LL and I disagree.)

Hope that helped..

 

-AK

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@FrankLee

There's also a fundamental difference involving internet culture/RL social culture etc. that's way off topic here and more suited to a blog post (that apparently I have to write now) that goes to more fully explaining why those facebookers/RL interests will never be interested in SL, but the point is that this is nothing more than an example of the sunk costs fallacy:  http://www.skepdic.com/sunkcost.html  (link for those unfamiliar with the term) thank anything else.

They're going to do this. Any changes will be minor, because any *real* protection would defeat the purpose of doing this at all(which is a clue that they shouldn't actually DO it at all, but that's something else entirely.)

-AK

(under the bus with everyone else.)

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@FrankLee

 

Welp, you said almost everything I was about to say so I don't need to do it now other than to say "this."

 

One thing though- they won't actually *get* those facebook users because they fundamentally don't understand why those facebookers *arent here* (and won't be here) to begin with.

Woo hoo. The sunk costs fallacy strikes again.  Whee.

 

-AK

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And as evidence of that, your last name, "Frobozz" is awesome.

 

-Someone who used to work for Infocom, before they were bought out by Activision.