Michael Timeless

This, I hesitate to use the word solution, might not be for everyone. A few months back I purchased the Swiss Alps Sim Surround skybox by accident (I wanted the normal Sim Surround and didn't read the excellent notes on the web site). I ended up using the skybox rather than buy another almost identical product. Like everyone has stated and as listed in the JIRA entry, I had problems with "sits" and the sim map disappearing. A week or so later I decided to put a second identical sim surround up as a skybox at 500 meters. Somehow and I'm not sure how, the two seem to cancel each other out. For the last 3 weeks I've had my sim map back and have not noticed any ill effects. My sim does not have heavy usage and is at about 90% of its full prim usage. I've also had no problem with sits. While having two 90+ prim surrounds might not be an ideal solution for everyone it does seem to work. Alternatively, when time permits I'm going to see if strategically placing a few invisible mega prims would have the same effect. Food for thought?

Linli and others While I applaud your need to put a brave face on things I can predict with 99.999% acuracy (purer than Ivory soap) that your meeting on Friday will go something like this. * The sim will lag out because of the hundreds of angry avitars trying to get in. * Logic will be on the side of the educators and non-profits - The power switch will be in the hands of LL employees many of whom probably had bad educational experiences as teens. * The Linden will speak - he will not hear * What the Linden will say - will not be a single thing that can be confirmed, tied down, or verified - except your price increase. * It is sad that in the dozens of meetings I have attended they have all gone this way. The Linden (and I use that term interchangeably because they all use the same rhetoric) will pretend to take notes. I have been here for years, my University has a site here that is always under criticism about whether it is a tool or a game (that has now been answered, it's a game, not one we are playing). In the last several years people have talked about leaving and never have because there was always something to see, something to do, something to learn. If your viewer works and you can see the large tracks of yellow (for sale) or purple (abandoned) sims you can see that the things to do are rapidly disappearing. A comment on one of the other blogs here today summed it up nicely. One of the bloggers wrote, "Mesh and these improvements are a huge improvement I can work offline at my desk without coming into second life and I can sell things through the market with only a MINIMAL investment. That is the Second Generation of Second Life speaking. Spend minimum time in world and maximize your profits. The Children of Linden are growing up. They don't have to be educated, they don't have to live here, they don't have to spend much to make money. Who is going to be left to sell things too? You need to own land to open a box, especially when the schools and free sandboxes go away. No schools, no learning environments, no altruism, no common sense. Second Life has become a modern urban utopia.

People in Second Life tend to forget that Education is not profitable. At one time there was education in SL sponsored by LL. There was a mentor program sponsored by LL. All gone. The only budget in question is Linden Labs. The only jobs considered inportant are those in Linden Labs. (Of course only 1/3 as important as they used to be.) The question I have on all the recent counterintuitive moves by Linden Lab is when will a former employee come forth and tell what drives some of this thinking. I'm glad we have one grid now for the teens and one grid for those fleeing from them. Alice Cooper said it best, "Schools out forever." At least in Second Life.

Actually I'm afraid most people don't go far enough in their worries. What's to stop a local police organization from making a name for themselves by simply hiring a teenager to do exactly what everyone is most afraid of. We have elections coming up and what better way for a local police organization to make a name for themselves? In the past, as many have pointed out, Linden Labs did little to check identification. While this exposed us to some risk the argument could be made that the "child" was violating TOS, faking their identification and other circumstances that might be considered "mitigating." This is no longer true. Linden Labs has served each of us legal adults with notice that their are children present in our world. The burden of proof is now on us. Each of us now knows children will be present, have cameras, have the ability to change names, change identities, read our profiles, visit shops and might even hear the occasional nasty word - probably less nasty than what they use - but lordy coming from an adult it will be literally and figuratively a FEDERAL OFFENSE. Put the kids on their own mini-contenent. I assume that Linden Labs is not giving them free sims so put their sims away from everyone else and don't allow them to go anywhere else. Put the burden on them not on the adults who come here to pay to play. How many times does this lesson have to be learned? What will it take to get the message across to you? Will Mark Woebegone have to bring his kids on line to really make it a point?

This morning Linden Labs received notification of an SPCA complaint for the "Beating of a dead horse." Seriously folks this topic is not going to be easily resolved. No one is really reading the arguments and everyone is focused on their own point of view. The reality (as I see it) is this. Linden Labs will have to keep adding things to be competitive. Linden Labs will not take complaints from us seriously unless it impacts their bottom line significantly. Owning Sims or playing for free we are all treated equally poorly. The bottom line is far simpler. If Linden Labs shuts the door no matter how talented you are, no matter how radical or talented or intelligent you are - everything goes poof when the power goes out. Personally paying the equivalent of a car payment every month for tier bothers me on the intellectual level. I come in to play at being an architect and to enjoy fun with like minded friends. I love the beauty and creativity of the people I've met. But always in the back of my mind (as it should be for everyone else) is the fact that it's all there at the whim of someone in Linden Labs. While I wish they would listen, really listen, to consumer complaints I've finally decided that I have to live with their whims, bad decisions, and really stupid comments as part of the world that I visit every day. While I would love to know why Phil once made his infamous comment about the CUSTOMERS that support him I've come to accept that one day he will grow up and make this a real company that supports its customers. Failing that eventually someone will replace Linden Labs and I will have a new hobby. In short folks, mesh, right or wrong, like voice, right or wrong, like all the other things right or wrong is insignificant. While we bicker among ourselves the silent Lindens sit in San Francisco, sip their drinks and wonder which of them will be next to fall. Either enjoy this for the comedy that it is or quit. I don't say that lightly. I've had friends here that have quit after almost 10 years. During that time they had businesses that were wonderful, talent that was unmatched and brilliant ideas. In the end none of that really mattered. They are gone, Linden Labs hasn't changed or been affected by their loss. Most people will skip over this because like all the other statements they've skipped over they aren't looking at the big picture. Second Life, like MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and all the other "gathering" places is simply an electronic placebo for those of us who have a need to be where our First life for one reason or another is pushing us. It was the same long ago with CompuServe. Then AOL, this is just another chapter in the evolution of human interaction. It will go away eventually. Now, when I get my brain-pod interface installed that will be permanent! Lighten up everyone and let the pony die in peace.

Geona people do pay attention. The problem is that change, while good needs some structure. You've been around long enough to know that the "promise" of something wonderful doesn't always live up to the reality of it. I for one have almost stopped spending money in SL because as stated the more creative people have left. I don't blame mesh or sculpties for this just too many changes without fixing the underlying problems. While I don't want to return to the days of flying eyeballs I rather not turn this into World of Warcraft either. Color and liveliness is in the eye of the beholder. Although I can and have operated a computer aided design and drafting machine and create almost any three dimensional item with it I still have respect for an honest to goodness sculpter who carves with iron and real stone, whom I would consider, unlike me, an artist. SL is on the decline, not because of the psuedo-realism, but because of the culture that thinks a short cut is the best way to do everything. People don't explore because we still crash at Sim boundaries, we still have a viewer that can make a top of the line X58 I7 and three video cards cry. I don't give a rat's butt about mesh until the basics are fixed. I don't live in glorified chat rooms and it sickens me to be told to get past it. You may say color and liveliness will save SL I'd settle for it staying up consistently and less people trying to figure a way to rape the people who remain. This has degenerated into name calling, what happened to a sense of community? I don't know why I bother anymore.

I think, and I don't want to put words in any avitar's mouth, that the point many of the people who have been here a while are trying to make is simply this. Change is taking places in SL as it always has. While technological change is welcome it is being applied in ways that don't support SL as a whole. Maestrom and others make the point they are still crashing at regional boundaries and I don't even want to talk about Chat Log and other long term issues because while important it is only important to those who live in SL. All too often over the past few years we have non-SL people coming in to tell us what is important for SL - yet they don't live here. It used to be you'd see Linden's out and about and could talk to them. Now I expect to see them with bodyguards and lawyers standing next to them. Paying to be a "premium" member meant you got 24/7 support from people who understood the process. Now even multiple sim owners get crap from people who "Just don't get it." Mesh, live sculpties and voice before it will come online and it can't be stopped. However, where are you going to be able to access it when more and more sims from the "old timers" are gone. How many of these outsiders are going to plunk down $295 a month for a glorified facebook. Like many I came here to push prims around and have some fun with like minded people. I hated watching thieves come in and steal content, and LL kill off gambling or anything else that made money from SL. This place bleeds talented people. The kids who are coming in now - and yes I use the words kids, are not going to pump money into SL to keep it going like the people who sweated and toiled to understand a limited world. At one time the slogan was our world. Not anymore. The sad part is that most of the people who always take LL's side in this don't understand that many of us were the "original" fans. Out world is slowly dying becoming a social networking experiment that no one except the uninitiated want. This world was built by the Anne's and the Bob Bondurant's and Carl Metropolitans and others who made a world - not a world of warcraft. Pretty soon this will be SL-Disney land. The perfect, politically correct world that kills initiative, kills creativitiy and eventual kills itself. Welcome mesh, marketplace and all the other things that put LL in the position to get the few dollars soon to be generated here. I can't wait until they have to start putting out free sims to get tier money.