Nika Talaj

I think there is a small bug in the font choices for Firefox. When I post a URL (for example this one, to this message), it shows up as bold, not underlined, black text. However, in the reply entry dialog, it shows up more noticably as purple underlined text.

Suella Ember wrote: ... See, you are actually highlighting right there the problem with ranks...They should judge each comment on its own merits. The problem with ranks, as I see it, is not that they cause people to ignore those of lower ranks (I don't actually belive that really happens much). The problem is that it seeds this idea of division Yes, as you say, there are multiple problems with ranking. But I don't share your belief that people don't pay attention to them. I believe that LL and the companies that create website software like this platform have done their research, so I tend to think that social research done about DIGG and Yahoo and other sites that use ranking probably concludes that users asking questions pay attention to rankings. I'm sure LL views rankings as a tool that can help make this site more self-managing. I further believe that, rankings being akin to The Love Machine in that both are reputation management tools, LL would never consider disabling that feature here. Suella Ember wrote: if you start to feel like that you are never going to feel happy in any forum. Fortunately, this hasn't been a problem for me, but thank you for your concern. For example, n SL's older forums, I was fairly active from Jan 2007 until their closure. Over half my posts were answers to questions such as those now in SL Answers and the Content fora. Ah well, good times! Nowadays I'm fairly happy at SLU. And, outside of SL, I've managed to be content on a technical forum or two. :smileywink: But, although the software platform is improved, I think LL's increasing dependence on popularity as a measure of value is too distasteful to spend a lot of time here. I will drop by to ask questions, and for every question I ask I'll try to answer a few. Have fun, all you regulars!

Suella Ember wrote: ... Details of the ranks and roles are here and you can progress up the ranks depending on your activity here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/help/faqpage/faq-category-id/ranksroles#ranksroles .... I was so hoping you found a different FAQ than the one I had already posted in the 6th response to this thread, but I suppose it is good that you reposted it, given your status as "Advisor". People who DO pay attention to titles are, I suppose, more likely to accept information from an Advisor than a mere Honored Resident. /sighs and leaves. Really, all that reputation management engines do is impoverish sites like this. People who are potentially helpful notice that they are being ignored in favor of ubiquitous 'answerers', and take themselves elsewhere.

Also, there are a fair number of helpful threads in the previous incarnation of the forums - the machinima archive is here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Machinima/bd-p/2121

Hi, Lucia. I've never used wegame, so can't help with the first part of your question. Like most casual machinima-makers, I use the free version of Fraps. It'll just record your streaming application (that is to say, SL). Unless you're making tutorials like Torley's, you'll also want to turn off SL's UI before you record (ctrl-alt-F1 in v1.x based viewers). I'm not sure about how to turn off the UI in v2. This and other hints are covered in Torley's machinima hints page: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Making_movies There are other wiki pages on machinima that are also helpful, just search. Have fun!

Hi, Nimue. Have you tried asking about this on the Phoenix Support inworld group? They have inworld groups for support in several languages: http://www.phoenixviewer.com/support.php The mornings (SL time) seem to me to be always well staffed by good support people, in the English group at least. You may notice that they provide email support as well. Their forums don't seem terribly active. That said, I suspect that it may be a bug. Here's a possible bug report on their Jira: http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-497

Since we can't start threads in this subforum, let me briefly return to the ostensible topic of this thread for a little feedback on forum usability. > I really love the tabs that allow quick switching between Answers, Forums, Blogs and Knowledge Base. :smileytongue: > I would like a "Reply to topic" button at the bottom of the last page (at the bottom of every page would work too). I often want to reply to the OP after reading the most recent post, which in the default linear view is the bottom of the last page. (ETA: I assume the "Reply" button on every post replies to just that post, which becomes a pain in a threaded view).

Hmmm. "Honored Resident" is not listed in the FAQ on roles and ranks. I imagine that it is the same as "Resident", though. Perhaps they're adding the honorific just to set a tone of mutual respect. /reminds herself to always refer to Lexie as "Esteemed Linden Overlordess".

The creators of the Numbakulla "puzzle" sim (it was a team effort) have regretfully announced that they can no longer cover the tier. I learned about it here. Its game has been played by 28,500 people. I'm not involved with this sim at all, nor is anyone I know. I just encountered it for the first time this week. Numbakulla is beautiful, very magical, poetic, and entertaining. I wish there was some way that LL could partner with residents to ensure that bulds that showcase SL at its best, builds that have already been carried for years by their creators, are preserved and fostered. I cry for LL's lack of vision in letting this one slip away. The makers hope to move it to OpenSIm somewhere.

Thanks, Suella, great tip. I had better luck with a badge width of 160 pixels, height 175 - maybe some artifact of the site automatically resizing the pic? Also, the actual size of the badge seems to me to change based on the options one chooses to display in it, as well as the size of an individual post. Even if a little odd, the badge is a nice option. Personally, though, I'd be very willing to trade badge space for a larger, more square avatar pic.

If it is at all possible to port threads from the Jive Archive area to the new area, I would very much like the scripting content forum archive to be moved. Quite a few people spent a lot of time moving meaningful content from the VB forums to the Jive scripting forums, and I doubt that effort will ever be made again. Plus, in the dialog I'm using right now to write this message, I don't see a cursor at all. Using Firefox with no custom palettes or anything.

It’s also important to note that we are going to remove the “voting” feature in JIRA in one month. Today, we do not use voting to triage or to make product decisions and the last thing that we want to do is set false expectations. Have you considered that supporters of a particular Jira will simply tell their friends to "watch" that item? Given the much greater numbers of people who now vote than watch issues, be prepared for vastly increased load on your Jira messaging system. Facebook is the best place to find out about cool things going on in Second Life, share ideas, and get the inside scoop on inworld events, contests, machinima releases, PR activities, fun discussions, and more. From Facebook TOS: Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Are you saying that no one in LL's marketing department finds it the least bit ironic that you are pointing to Facebook, a no-fly zone for SL avatars, as the best day-to-day source on what to do in SL? Also, please note that next month we will be rolling out a new community platform--an integrated system that will include SL Blogs, SL Forums, SL Answers, and the Knowledge Base.

Welcome, Rod, great start in communicating with the residents! I hope you are blessed with a similar ability to communicate with the real world, and can salvage the reputation of virtual worlds in general by bringing SL the success it so deserves. Steady as she goes, though. SL currently lures many thousands of residents away from their TV sets and IPads for hours and hours daily. Do not destroy its current appeal when you attempt to broaden it. And, whatever you do, put in place some sort of personnel evaluation system that rewards results instead of reputation (ala the Love Machine)! It's easy to believe that LL needed to lay off a third of their workforce last year, but some of the specific layoff decisions were incomprehensible to residents.

/me stands in Caledon Oxbridge ... what is that noise? Even in this rarefied atmosphere I can hear waves of subterranean laughter. You may wish to reconsider the title of this blog entry, my dear Brett.

Since no one is reading this anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter if I say this: Yo Rod. What'ja do to Joe Miller? Looks like we're down to 4 execs at LL again, folks. Maybe Mr. Humble will be bringing along a whole new gang when he shows up. Let's hope they're not TOO shiny, and that they actually know how to get things - really, almost anything, the list of potential improvements is immense - done.

Welcome Rod, and thanks to BK and other LL execs and managers for holding down the fort during recruiting! Perhaps we'll see the exec team fill out again now. (Interesting to see the recent addition of Legal Counsel to the team again, maybe she should be introduced too?). SL is definitely an entertainment product, but it is not a game. Rod, I'm cheered by your background and stated interest in SL: ""I have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways." Rod, have fun here, help us make an ever more interesting and vital SLworld, and Happy Holidays!

Fare well, Jack. Never had to deal with land issues, but always respected you for not being afraid to deliver tough messages, as well as running clearly useful office hours. Train up someone else on how to do that office hour thang before you leave, please? *smiles* Nika Talaj

The issue with multiple instances of the same viewer is different, in that case the trouble is that only the first instance is given write access to the cache, the rest are read only if they do not get their own folders. The third party viewers share this limitation and Torley's advice applies to them too. I was unaware that multiple instances of a viewer had read-only cache access, but I can see how it came to be. This just causes a performance hit for viewers 2-n, rather than any errors, yes? I'm wondering if Linden support has been seeing an increased volume of crash complaints due to cache incoherency, and that's why this hint is (finally) seeing the light of day. I have suspicions that something has happened server-side that is leading to cache errors. I've been using the same ancient viewer (Snowglobe 1.5x) since it was posted, and in the past - oh, two months? - I've begun getting intermittent series's of rapid crashes that are fixed by clearing cache. I've seen friends encounter this on other viewers as well. ETA: I'm seeing this on both of my machines, very different environments, one Win7, one XP, etc.. Never was a problem before a couple of months (or so) ago. Goes away every time with a simple cache clear.

I'm glad you gave this basic truism - different viewers each need their own cache - more visibility, Torley! It would be ideal if something could be done along the lines of what Ann suggests - if the Linden codebase could contain a snippet that automagically appends a unique string to the standard cache name for each viewer. Of course, that presupposes that each viewer has a numeric unique identifier, which perhaps requires more coordination than the TPV community could be expected to demonstrate. You COULD hash the viewer name, but ... hmmm ... prolly lead to a proliferation of abandoned cache folders. Ah well.

Forwarding of offline messages/notices seems to work intermittently; it's been that way for me since 2007 at least. (And yes, I've checked my spam filters. I've even turned them off for periods just to test). I'm very sure I'm not alone in this. If I have two avatars that are members of the same group, they each seem to get a random subset of the notices that actually are sent. I'm resigned to this always being the case. My question is: does anyone know enough about this to be able to give guidance as to how to send a notice so that it is most likely to be forwarded successfully? For example, if the problem is in SL's messaging servers, then presumably it would be best to send them when the grid is most idle? Or, if the problem is with a 3rd party message gateway service that SL uses, perhaps when that gateway is most idle? Any clues?

So I am wondering, is this normal with the blog?... then I guess there's always that possiblity as long as it remains open, eh? Unless I missed it, I'll just keep reading. I'm checking back occasionally. The major nonprofits in SL are doubtless contacting LL directly, and they would probably hear first if LL decides to reconsider. However, it is not at all promising that no Linden has even posted a "We're reading your comments with interest". If they do reconsider, they would probably update the OP on this thread to indicate the time frame for a decision, which would be announced via a new blog post. But I wouldn't hold my breath - LL surely anticipated both the outcries and subsequent sim closures. In absolute numbers, the number of closures may not be a problem for them. In loss of future growth, it will be a big problem.

(Well, probably. #2 would be almost as difficult as... oh, say, moderating a discussion forum.) *smiles* Well, only if LL were terribly concerned with maintaining an image of completely even-handed giving. But, they're in a budget crunch, I'd really suggest that they simplify the process instead. Many fewer projects approved, and less bending-over-backwards to give folks the benefit of the doubt. Isn't this how it would really come down? > Some sims, even after 2 email warnings to their administrator, would not respond to the requirement to resubmit. Result: 1 further warning in January, sim deletion Feb 1st. > Some projects have already been up for 6 months or more with no significant traffic. Result: unless the new submission outlines a dramatically new project, sim deletion Feb 1st, because the project appears to have failed. > Some projects really are just sandboxes. Again, sim deletion Feb 1st. Going forward, of course, traffic cannot be used as a criteria, it's so easy to game. But at this moment in time, it can be used. Also, the splitting of sims for short-term fundraising off from the nonprofit discount enables LL to impose a stricter budget on them, so that otherwise worthy projects can be simply denied because LL's yearly budget for charitable fundraising has been spent.

If the problem was widespread abuse or discounts that were unaffordable, then let me suggest an alternate message. ---------------- We are experiencing widespread abuse of the nonprofit discount. Therefore, we're forced to take the following measures: 1. As of the next academic year, starting MM/2011, the educational/nonprofit discount for full sims will be reduced to 35%. Plus, <description of deal for homestead/open sims> 2. We are tightening the criteria for the discount as of January 2011. We wish to focus on permanent projects by accredited institutions that provide structured programs (as opposed to sandboxes and/or social spaces).We realize that this may cause some of you additional paperwork, and we regret the necessity. In an attempt to mitigate this, we have run traffic statistics on existing discounted estates, and reviewed our relationship with some institutions with which we have long-term relationships. That has resulted in a list of organizations that need not resubmit for discount approval: <url>. The others of you must submit the expanded set of forms, <url>. 3. Some nonprofits receive nonprofit discounts for sims for short-term fundraisers, such as RFL. These will no longer be covered by the nonprofit discount, but instead will be administered by LL's own charitable giving office. Projects already approved for 2010 will go forward without change; however, events scheduled in 2011 must apply for a charitable grant <url>. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience. ------------------- My consulting fees are $150/hr. This took 20 minutes. You can pay me in Lindens.

The Board of Virtual Ability would like to express our deep disappointment.... Gentle Heron for the Board of Directors of Virtual Ability, Inc. Am I correct in gathering that this policy came as a surprise? I am astonished that LL would announce this without at least spinning it to prominent non-profits. Virtual Ability's work in SL is quite widely known and respected, partly through LL's own press. Does that mean that this will come as a surprise to RFL as well? That could be noisy.

I'm not involved in education in SL, but I'm sure LL feels they have analyzed the pros and cons of supporting it, and evidently they are happy to see schools go. This is incomprehensible to me, though. Are they aware of how many educators own or rent land in SL which is NOT on the school's property? The Steamland's library system, Metanomics, Oxbridge ... etc. etc. ... how many institutions grew out of academics in SL? The timing is particularly bizarre - just when LL's supposedly figured out how to create safe areas for teens, and in the middle of the school year. What a boon for ReactionGrid. I don't suppose LL's plotting any sort of merger with them? ETA: I always thought it might be good for LL to have one grid for business/education, and a separate one for entertainment.