Deej Kasshiki

It's the infamous Linden corporate culture at work, again. Doing something as mundane (read: boring and potentially uncomfortable) as customer communication? Hell, that's no fun. There are too many pet projects to be worked on. Firing off a quick forum barb or a condescending quip, now that's entertainment!

Oh wow, I didn't know about her using the SL logo. Yep, abusing the Lab's IP like that will land you in hot water every time. Thanks for the details Melita. To those still in contact with "D" please let her know that her biting wit is missed in the forums but, totally understandable why she chooses not to return.

Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: /me wonders why LL is finding it so difficult to document features as they add them. BTW - you can turn off the notifications that someone is following you. Another privacy setting that arrived stealthwise. Agreed. It would be very nice if the Lab would let us know about all this new stuff since they're, you know, spending time on developing it and presumably want people to use it... :matte-motes-mad:

It seems problematic that LL consistently runs beta software on the production servers thus forcing us all to become unpaid and unwitting test subjects. Yes, I know the reasons behind the RC channels and no, I don't long for the old days of day long gridwide updates. However, there should be a better way of testing server software than the current model. No other MMO that I know of tests their beta software in the live game environment like this and there's a good reason why.

I have display names off (when I use a viewer that can even display them) for a very good reason; people are abusing the hell out of unicode and ASCII characters. I'm not going to try and decipher a string of symbols, foreign alphabets or upside down words that can change on a whim. The username is unique and doesn't change. It doesn't require any extra steps on my part to discern. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I didn't design display names, LL did. Save the indignation for them.

I'd forgotten about that incident! It was pretty darned funny. She was playing a joke on the guy (who, as I remember, started the whole thing) and it was pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that she was having a laugh at that sad nooblet's expense but, I guess LL didn't care for the humor. :matte-motes-crying:

Forget it Dogboat. Some people would rather namecall and ignore any points of view other than their own. Heaven forbid that there's actually more than one user case, one "right" way... Sadly it's this attitude that is causing as much damage to the SL community as any of the dumb decisions made by the Lab in the recent past.

Penny Patton wrote: Some clarifications. Your "user name" is the name you log in with. It is not meant to be visible beyond being a unique identifier, like a social security number or other government ID. This is unique and cannot be changed. Your "display name" is your avatar name, what you want to be called by people you meet in SL. This can be changed and it is not unique, so there may be others with the same name just like in real life. To change your display name simple edit your profile, there is an option for changing your display name there. Unfortunately, LL handled the upgrade ot display names with all the wisdom and grace they've become known for over the years, which is to say they took a great idea and managed to implement it in the worst possible way. LL set up the viewer to display both user names and display names by default, a stupid, stupid move considering how easily accessable usernames are making impersonation impossible. So this move only served to confuse the issue. On top of that, LL introduced display names shortly after the release of Viewer 2. The initial releases of Viewer 2 were awful, absolutely atrociously bad, it took them almost a year to turn Viewer 2 into what was eventually a superior viewer, but by then they'd burned so many existing residents that many refuse to touch it, citing problems that were resolved half a year ago or longer. So they continue to use older viewers that only show user names. Still others are simply crotchety old SL users who hate change, even when it's change for the better, and simply refuse to use display names. Those people need to get a life. You are entitled to your opinion but, was that really necessary? Comments like this only serve to further divide an already polarized community and detract from the otherwise solid info in the post as well as make you look petty. Can we all agree to drop the invective and accept that everyone has different needs and uses SL in different ways? Just because the LL viewer meets your needs doesn't mean it will meet mine. I prefer Firestorm or Cool VL and even though they can show display names I have that turned off because of the rampant abuse of ASCII characters in display names. I don't like trying to decipher upside down names or names full of symbols.

This normally just means that your graphics card is too new to have been included in the text file that SL uses at start up to set your graphics level (low, medium, high or ultra). It's not a cause for alarm. If SL doesn't recognize your graphics card it will default to the lowest settings. After log in you can set things as you prefer. However, if you're using LL's official viewer 3.0, you may have problems. The current viewer has issues with some Nvidia 400 and 500 series cards. You may need to turn off the basic shaders for the game to load. You can take a look in the SL Viewer subforum for more details.

You should take a look through the Merchants section of the forum for some theories and ask there. The residents who post there are very savvy and far more likely to have relevant info for you.

You can also check out IYC, a very popular furry dance club, or any of the FurNation sims' sandboxes.

What version of Firestorm? Details on your computer hardware, especially your graphics card, would be helpful too. In general I'll say that if you downloaded the Firestorm mesh beta and you have an Nvidia graphics card the best fix is to use the Firestorm 2.5 beta (no mesh) if you want something based on v2.

The Cornfield, definitely.

Things seldom boil down to a simple black and white, good or bad, best and rest. Try out several and see which one works best for your needs.

Tristizia Demonista wrote: Just speaking on the matter of Viewers here. Frustration is probably one reason. Passion another. For some , like me for example, it is also to a degree a bit of anger. I happen to be one of those users who actually like V2/3, and for some reasons don't even have technical probs with it. And it is VERY annoying, that whenever some prob or question comes up for me (me being relatively new in SL), almost every answer one get's beginns with "Get Viewer X" or "Why are you still using THAT Viewer ? eww!" or something along this line. So, eventually one beginns to simply fire back in kind. Definatly not the correct way, yes, but at least to some degree it seems inevitable. The only ones to solve this, is LL. ps: this is in NO way meant as an attack on anyone, just a description of feelings So imagine what it's been like for us who've been here from the start of the "viewer wars" and the feeling that the Lab and their vocal supporters are trying to cram something down our throats.The gate swings both ways. I don't give a tinker's damn what viewer someone uses and I'm not here on some kind of ideological crusade, believe it or not. I don't want to kill v2 or change it for those who are happy using it. I'm sure the same goes for nearly everyone who has issues with it. I just want something that works for me. And after over a year the powers that be simply haven't delivered that. I think that a lot of this nonsense could be calmed if the Lab would simply do a better job of keeping us informed about what they're working on. Rodvik hinted at changes to the UI coming in 2012. Great! Give us some idea what you're doing. Just some generalities would be better than nothing. Heck, even a "we hear you and we're working hard" feel good blog is better than silence!

Two thumbs up for the Isetta and the mice!

Thanks for the tip Qwal. I'll turn it off right away. Love the hat, btw!

I absolutely agree that the reason so many people post here and other media is out of frustration. This is nothing new; people have been complaining about the way the Lab operates in a "head down" manner, ignoring resident feedback, for as long as I can remember. But as the poor decisions (and the unintended consequences of them) pile up people are getting more upset. Whether it's large issues like the void sims, or Zindra or smaller ones like display names, residents tried pointing out the flaws with the way the Lab intended to implement its latest scheme. And in every case (with the possible exception of the teen grid merge) the resident's concerns and warnings were proven to totally on point and the Lab working afterwards to remediate the damage they were warned about. I fully understand that Linden Research, Inc. isn't running a democracy. They're running a business and certainly don't have to get customer approval before implementing whatever initiative or strategy they see as beneficial to their business. But, it would very much behoove them to listen and seriously consider what we're telling them. Engage us in a conversation. Be more forthcoming about your plans. Tell us what what is and isn't possible technically as well as from a business standpoint. SL has a large and passionate group of people, many experts in their respective fields, who are eager to work with LL to make this virtual world better but it requires a real commitment from the top management to use this resource. So far I'm not seeing that commitment.

Seems vaguely odd to me somehow but, I honestly don't have a strong opinion about it since I don't use that feature. Actually this is another reason for me to steer clear of it. Thanks for the info.

I've noticed a troubling trend in these forums lately and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing the same. Now, I remember the old Jive forums and the version before that. There were some very "spirited" threads, a bit of mudslinging, a bit of trolling, etc. That's pretty much par for the course on the anonymous internet but even so, we retained a sense of belonging to the same "team". There were cliques, there were "alliances" or whatever you want want to call them and people could get heated but again, at the end of the day most people could put aside their forum wars and get together in world and have a good time. That doesn't seem to be the case lately. There seems to have developed a very strong sense of "us vs. them" that's developed along the lines of people who agree with recent LL decisions and those who voice criticism of same. Just take a look at the SL Viewer subforum to get a taste of what I'm talking about. Anyone who goes there and dares speak ill of v2 will be told to leave SL, called names, told to program their own viewer and generally shouted down. It's pretty insane. People take criticism of the Lab as personal somehow and respond by launching nasty attacks as if someone had insulted a family member. I've been a furry for my entire time in SL so I have a pretty thick skin. I was around for the wild west old days when griefer groups like PN roamed the grid and regularly attacked FurNation and any places furs liked to hang out. I've been harassed by real pros so the diatribes and sneers of the haters don't upset me (although I do admit to taking their bait and responding in kind sometimes). I do, however, try to raise rational and defensible arguments for my position and don't resort to personal attacks. Anyway, my point is that I feel that we've lost something that used to separate SL from other MMOs; that sense of all working to build something special. Now we're just a red tribe vs. a blue tribe with no respect for each other. Maybe it's just a mirror of society in general as the nation and the world are more polarized than any time I can recall. Thoughts?

So maybe the Lab should fix the problems rather than you attack dogs trying to beat everyone up? Oh, and since I've been here longer than both of you haters you I think I'll stick around, thanks.

Careful now guys, if you keep this up and make any comments that are even mildly critical or suggesting that all is not all sunshine and lollipops in SL you'll be attacked by people calling you names like "self-important twit" or "whiner".

leliel Mirihi wrote I've been slowly giving up on SL due to the constant whining about everything by self important twits. Why can't you people just get over it and move on, it's not like LL is forcing anyone to use v2. "You people"? "Self important twits"? Nice... So why can't you just scroll past as well? If people complaining (and doing so pretty mildly actually--if you want to see real nastiness check the WoW or Eve Online forums) on a forum upsets you so much the wild world that is the greater internet must make you apoplectic. I've been in SL for 5 years now, all the while as a paying premium account. If I, as a paying customer, am not getting the service that I'm paying for then I have the right to ask the service provider to make things right. You see people complaining whereas I see very loyal customers who are trying to get the Lab to fix problems! How would they even know about a great number of issues with the service and the viewer if not for residents speaking up or filling out JIRAs? Also, if the Lab were far more communicative and transparent people wouldn't be so frustrated and come to these forums to blow off steam, but that's another issue. Maybe stop to consider that if 100s of people have the same issue, perhaps there is something wrong, even though everything may be fine for you. Sorry if that upsets or inconveniences you. When you pay for my subscription then you can tell me what I can say and how to behave in SL. Until then, I'll follow my own counsel and continue posting as I see fit, thanks very much.

Baloo Uriza wrote: I see we're now up to having the same pointless bitchfest twice daily now...does nobody read the archives to make sure they're not covering ground so old that the dead horse has been beaten flat by the traffic? So...why not just scroll past posts you find uninteresting rather than complaining about complaining?

PeterCanessa Oh wrote: But, but, surely we all use twitface to communicate. You mean there are meant to be in-world communication tools too? Wow - will LL start using them to make announcements so we don't have to use completely different software to find out what they're saying? Not bloody likely. Heck, the CEO even likes posting on third party forums far more than he does this official one.