[September Update]

I'll partially agree, while some of the complaints are legitimate concerns, most of them are nothing but rubbish posts, but I was in no way coarse or vulgar in any of my posts, but you will see things the way you do and there's nothing I will or want to do to change that.

And sure, I speak my mind, and I might dismiss some of what people have had to say as fluff, but I've not insulted a single person for their opinion; and certainly have not been vulgar, nor called anyone names. Some people can disagree with what people say without resorting to insults and name calling.

[September Update]

Mael, I was relating MY positive experiences with SL; that's not exactly brown nosing.

And also, I've not insulted you personally; yet, you've called me a brown noser, said I was paid by Linden Lab for actually congratulating them on what I see as a success, and pretty much called me 'sick' in the process-- and after you said all those lovely things to me, I simply said I wouldn't want to get to know you.

So, here's a mirror, doll, have a look at yourself.

[September Update]

Cully, I also run a business in RL. And I know, that if I listened to even half of what my clients wanted, I would be out of business by the end of a year, if not sooner. 

In SL terms, each user knows what "they" want, but at the same time they don't understand the big picture. A lot of people don't get the concept that even in a business like Second Life, there are teams of people working in specific fields of expertise. For instance, the graphics guys probably know very little about databases, and the database guys probably know very little about the physical hardware in the colocations facilities, and those guys probably know nothing about the UI (and the UI guys probably know very little about the UI at this point)..... the thing is, ALL of these things are being worked out; maybe not as fast as people would like them to be worked on, but they are being addressed.

What I really get tired of seeing is people saying, "Why are you doing this when you should be doing that?" when the reality is, they are doing ~all~ of it, at the same time; they can't take programmer A and put him in slot B unless that's what his experience is because it'll make things 10x worse.

However, that said, my experience in SL, has been 100% improvement nearly every year (except that one M Linden year); and 2011 here, has seen the most positive changes I have seen since my time in SL. And, if people think its bad now, I wonder what they would have thought 5 years ago, when there were stretches of periods up to 2-3 weeks long where you could barely log into SL, and even if you managed, all you could do is stand still and chat, because everything was grey? Or, those every Wednesday updates when the grid would be down for a whole day, and then down again a couple days later for a roll back or update. Or when crossing a sim line was all but impossible, it just didn't happen on a regular basis, let alone slowly. You'd be lucky if you DID crash, because if you didn't, the sim wouldn't log you out, and you'd be ghosted for up to 2-3 hours before you could even re-log. Today, I don't crash crossing sim lines, I've crashed maybe once or twice during a teleport in the last year, and the only really thing annoying is group chat lag (and the V2 sidebar, which admittedly, I'm used to at this point and I'd probably miss it if were gone) ..... 

The thing with SL is-- being a premium member is a choice. You can have the exact same experience with SL being a basic, non-paying member as you can being a premium member. It doesn't affect what you can and cannot do. Complaining about new members getting things and old members getting little is like complaining the TV in the store shelf is 50% when you paid full price two months ago..... that's life. But, in the terms of SL again, old members get most of the same perks as new members, you just don't get the 'sales', but that's the way it is with ANY purchase, virtual or RL. Sometimes, you just gotta suck it up and say, "Damn, I missed that!"

In the end, if you don't want to support the development of SL..... then simply don't. I don't care if I get any little extras for being a premium member or not, what I get is SL itself, and that to me is more than enough to be premium for. I don't need any more incentive or motivation than simply supporting a platform I want to see expand and grow-- what I get in return is the whole experience, and knowing with my contribution, Second Life would be a little less than what it is right now.

[September Update]

Honestly, Maelstorm, here's the deal.

You don't like my positive opinion of Linden Lab, who really cares? Do you know me? Do I know you? Do you want to know me? Do I want to know you? Probably not, so who the freak cares? You don't seem like the sort of individual I'd want to spend any time around, so you keep your negative opinion, and I'll keep positive mine. And I'll keep supporting Second Life and Linden Lab, even during those times when I don't like them, because I'm experienced enough to know things always get better in the end.

[September Update]

Cully, you misunderstand when I say "Never listen to your customers"-- you're taking a section of that out of the context of the whole; I said when it comes to "running your business" and "taking your business where you want it to be", you don't listen to them on how to run it. Sure, you listen to specific technical issues, and address those individual issues; but over all, no. There's a reason why 99.9% of businesses fail, because 99.9% of people don't have a sweet freakin' clue how business works, how to run one, or even how to pay attention to their markets or who to pay attention to. When a customer someone says to a business, "You should do this to improve your business!" chances are it sounds like a good idea, but it's really a bad one.

For instance, this forum does ~not~ represent the the Linden Lab market-- we're so-called "power users", and we never ever represent the actual market in terms of customers and clients. It might be a hard thing to accept, but we're not really Linden Lab's customer target base-- nor should we be.

As for the little technical problems like chat lag, they get fixed with time and patience. I'm quite sure there's people working on that problem and trying to figure out how to get around it, but if you think you have more experience to take a giant network like SL and fix the problem, offer it up..... Second Life is thousands of interconnected servers serving hundreds of thousands of people; the architexture of SL, from what I understand it to be, puts every other multi user platform out there to absolute shame in terms of size and complexity. The people who Linden Lab hires to do code work aren't exactly run of the mill programmers, they know their stuff-- and if they have trouble solving it, without literally shutting down the servers to re-code the whole thing, there's probably a good reason. So, you know, chill out, the problems will get fixed with time.

[September Update]

..... Maelstrom, if you've seen any of my posts in the last few years, you'll find I'm not always a Linden Lab fan, nor easily pleased. I've just been here long enough to see how much growth and how much better Second Life is getting; and how far more stable it is than it was three or four years ago, and definitely WAY better than it was just 4 1/2 - 5 years ago.

And not spending money? If you knew how much I paid Linden Lab in the last 3-4 years in island purchases, tier, fees, and misc costs you'd probably crap your pants-- so, don't pull the money card on me. 

I know, it must be hard for you to accept, there's those of us out there who actually LIKE the direction Second Life is taking these days and actually, you know, don't always have problems with Linden Lab, but you know what..... things aren't that bad these days, and are actually looking UP!

And I wouldn't give Linden Lab a good review if they didn't deserve it; as I said, I certainly didn't give them good reviews when M Linden was running things, but hard work deserves recognition when they get it right. 

 

 

[September Update]

Congratulations, Linden Lab!

As a long time resident, I can finally see you're getting Second Life on the right track!

A lot of complaints here stem from people who just haven't been "out" in the world very long to see the improvements in not only the visual appeal of Second Life, but also the technical improvements. The stability of a platform like Second Life is a challenge..... but, the trend has always been toward improvement.

And thanks to the advancements you've been making..... I can finally say, "I forgive you for hiring M Linden back when, and I'll even forgive you for the V2 sidebar (which was still my only gripe with V2)."

Ignore the flack you see in these forums; remember, a successful company does not listen to its customers on how to run its business and in which direction to take it-- you guys know your market and data far better than any resident who only thinks they know from their perspective!

That said, you've mended the fence in my eyes, and especially thanks to mesh, I'm falling in love with Second Life all over again.

Good job!

<3 Linden Lab, thank you!