Deltango Vale

Many thanks for the links. Thanks too to Pussycat. Having tried some of the clothing (mesh and rigged mesh), I am not very impressed. None of it fits me. Nor does it come close to the quality of layer+prim clothes.

SL Marketplace saved me from bankruptcy in 2011. Without SLM, I would not be in SL today. But let us not turn this tread into yet another discussion of SLM.

"If it i had to make a stab at it though....I would say LL's profit margins hover between 10 -15% (15% is very optimistic on my part).....so on $100 Mill revenues.....we're looking at Net Profits before CT Tax around $10-15 Mill.usd" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is in line with my own ballpark calculations: US$10 million before tax on US$100 million in sales. Cutting the price of tier would increase sales, but the problem runs deeper. Even a 90% discount won't increase sales of a 2006 Nokia phone. In 1998, the world expected Apple to die. The breakthrough came when Steve Jobs returned to the company and began producing service-oriented consumer goods instead of computer hardware. Linden Lab is stuck in an engineering mentality. It doesn't see the New Economy and New Society of virtual worlds. That is the real problem.

In October 2010, I published a proposed tier schedule for 2011: http://deltango.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/a-proposed-land-tier-fee-schedule/ Here is the core problem: the relative price of tier has tripled since 2006. SL is a 2006 Nokia phone at 2006 prices.To put it another way, ask: what can US$300 buy in 2012 versus 2006? 2006: a month of tier or 1 X or 1 Y or 1 Z 2012: a month of tier or 3 X or 3 Y or 3 Z or 1 A or 1 B or 1 C or 1 D Based on this understanding, tier fees should be cut by 2/3 across the board. SL would then be a 2006 Nokia phone at 1/3 2006 prices.

@ everyone I think we are all saying the same thing, but from slightly different angles. Look, Second Life is a virtual world, a virtual country, an alternative reality. It is a social network 100x more powerful than Facebook. It is an interactive 3D movie, a global nightclub, a residential paradise, an international center for arts, fashion and music. It is the most advanced dating site ever created. It is also a political economy with a sophisticated private property rights structure. It's a world of interlocking lifestyles and commerce. BUT this amazing world is currently being run on a Commodore 64 by a bunch of old geezers who think Farmville is the apex of human achievement. Shimmy is right to say that LL is destroying incentives for creators by competing with them. Pussycat is right to say that SL is more than just commerce. Qie is right to say that there is a serious tactical problem with SLM, inworld search and their pricing models. Rene is right to say the sky is falling because LL has neglected the business community. Porky is right to say that Linden Lab has mismanaged the technological infrastructure. And I believe I am right to hammer home the message that SL is not a computer game. The question now is how do we give Linden Lab an adrenaline shot to the heart?

"That might be so Deltango...but they are the same problems that have been around since it's inception" -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ everyone A company must upgrade its product. It must stay on the leading edge. Nokia had a great product in 2006. iPhone came out in 2007. Nokia had momentum. iPhone had growing pains. Nokia did not go out of business overnight; it started bleeding. Second Life was an amazing product in 2006 (yes, there were technical problems), but Second Life is still a 2006 product (worse in many ways). The technology is aging. Bad policies accumulated, building on each other. Second Life has been bleeding since 2008, but there was a loyal following and no serious competition. Such bleeding, even under ideal conditions, is not sustainable. Eventually, a tipping point is reached and a company goes into its death spiral. For over 10 years, Apple struggled, bleeding, bleeding, bleeding, until it finally went into its death spiral. Imagine if Apple had been broken up for scrap in 1998. What Apple needed was a large capital injection, new leadership, new strategies, new management and new technology. Second Life is Apple 1997, Nokia 2009, Kodak 2010. The company needs to wake up! Sadly, the company is out cold on Valium. That means it needs to be sold to someone willing to turn things around. It means a large capital injection to rebuild the technological infrastructure - to make SL much more realistic - to make it run fast - to make it robust and flexible. Residents are craving more realism with fewer hassles. Then there needs to be a complete revision of previous policies. Second Life is an escape from RL. That's why people (grown-ups) came here in droves. Residents don't want a bland version of RL; they don't want Disney II or WoW II or Facebook 3D. They want to socialize in an information-rich, alternative reality. Merchants was a clean and robust property-rights structure. Linden Lab is currently satisfying nobody. Die-hard fans are finally throwing in the towel.

"Well, I disagree, strongly. People simply are not spending the same amount of time in-world: Concurrency is flat or falling, even as logins increase." -------------------------------------------------------- I agree with the effect, but not the cause. You are absolutely correct to say that inworld activity has fallen. The quantity of estate sims is plummeting. The value of mainland has collapsed. I am open minded about the possible contribution of SLM to that decline (although I believe SLM has helped SL), but to lay all the problems of SL at the door of SLM seems a bit exclusive.There are big problems at Linden Lab: problems of purpose and vision, problems of strategy and planning, problems of management and customer relations. In truth, there are so many problems at Linden Lab that I'm amazed SL has survived at all.

Good points. And why did inworld search go to hell? Because of that damn 'adult' policy with its stupid V2 viewer.

@ everyone Linden Lab should not compete with its residents. Linden Lab should not seek revenue by selling 'game items' to 'players'. SL is not a game. WoW is a game. WoW generates revenues by selling game items to players. SL is a virtual world. I believe SLM has probably helped the inworld economy. Did half the population of California leave the state when online shopping arrived? Does every resident of Bermuda spend every waking moment running a store? I repeat, SL is not a game. Residents live in SL, they socialize, they dance and chat and go to the beach and make love. They don't spend every waking moment planning their next business move. If someone buys a teapot on SLM, where is it going to end up? In her kitchen, in her house, on her land. If a person buys a dance animation on SLM, where is it going to end up? On his body in a club. If a person buys a new skirt on SLM, where's it going to end up? On the floor beside a bed in a skydeck. Folks, get with the program. Second Life is a virtual world. It has an economy based on social interaction.

Charlotte, could you please list a few top-quality stores for mesh clothing? I'm willing to try some mesh clothes (I hate sculpty clothes).

"If you see something in my store and you would prefer it to be transfer, all you'd have to do is contact me. I'm pretty easy going when it comes to my customers, and generally will change perms for folks." ----------------------------------------------------------- @ everyone Some merchants will respond to IMs. Most don't. So here is what happens in practice from a customer's perspective: I go to a store and see something I want to buy. It's not the perms I want. I look up the merchant's name. Not online. I compose an IM to the merchant asking for the perms I want. It takes time to write this IM. I must be sure to specify clearly the precise item I want in the color I want. I double check the information with the display. I send the IM. Then I must wait for the merchant to reply. A day goes by, no reply. Two days, no reply. Now I'm in a bad mood. I have negative thoughts about the merchant, the store and the item. I go to another store and see a cool item. It's not the perms I want. Remembering my previous experience, I say, "screw it. I don't need the hassle." I leave. Few residents want to spend their time writing to merchants; they want to buy the item while they are in the shop. Why? Because it caught their eye, because it's right there in front of them, because they are in the mood to wear it. Meanwhile, they are possibly in an IM conversation with a friend or preparing to go out to a club or both. Distractions. Impatience. Maybe got to go to RL soon. Phonecall or doorbell or washing machine beep or hubby on the way home. You have a customer in the palm of your hand - finger on the button, ready to buy - and, poof, she's gone. No sale.

Intelligence is a serious handicap in politics, which is why intelligent people do productive things with their lives instead of drowning in the slime and filth of politics. Occasionally, though, for weird, psychological reasons, an intelligent person ventures into the cesspool with the goal of reducing the stench. Such people rarely win, but their sacrifice sometimes acts to remind voters that they are ultimately responsible for the goofballs who govern them. As for the Republican Party, it has lost the election. Neither 'Hairdo' nor 'Bruiser' nor 'Sanatorium' can win against Obama. (I am not a Democrat, nor am I an Obama supporter). I admire Paul for his intelligence and honesty. He knows little about economics, but I prefer a chipped plate to a perfect fool. Needless to say, none of this matters. The real question is what will happen 2016.

Replying to the original OP, I would say that I am one of those idiots who seeks truth through intelligent discussion. Yeah, I know, boring, elitist, square, arrogant, yawn. Nobody likes dry, academic crapola - especially a full page of footnoted text - but, hey, that's how I'm wired for text-based fora. Inworld is a different story. Inworld is where I dance up close to you, slide my hands over your hips and whisper outrageous fantasies in your ear.

Perhaps we should say 'tu', not 'vous'

No, but a 24-hour day is a great idea. I suppose I should vote on the Jira, but Linden Lab seems to have zero interest in resident feedback. After a while, one thinks of Linden Lab as a kind of mad monarch, Ludwig II of Bavaria, perhaps, or Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary or some, weird, African dictator.

"While the shift from Mature/PG to Adult/Mature/PG was a hassle..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ever since Second Life was created in 2002, access to the Main Grid was restricted to 18+ (adult). The 'Mature' (adult) rating was the default. Yet within SL, some older sims were designated PG. (The new continents of Bay City and Nautilus were designated Mature.) Mature equaled adult equaled MPAA NC-17 or BBFC 18R/18 Mature also equaled legal adult What changed is this: Linden Lab tried to divide Mature (adult) into two types: 'Adult' (XXX) and 'Moderate' (sub-adult, MPAA R). Then Linden Lab forced anyone it deemed to be XXX to a new continent called Zindra. Then Linden Lab lowered the access age of SL from 18+ (adult) to 16+ (underage MPAA PG-13/R). As predicted, there was and still is much confusion because of the vague and arbitrary distinction between 'Adult' (XXX) and Moderate (MPAA R, formerly Mature MPAA NC-17). Notice that almost no international rating agency attempts to make a distinction between 18+ and XXX. Notice also that Moderate (MPAA R) applies to 17 only, a very thin distinction indeed from NC-17. Let's not even talk about trying to apply these distinctions to search criteria. And then there is the huge issue of international religious and sexual diversity for which 18+ is about the only common denominator. Messy? It was a disaster. If the goal was to increase the resident population, it failed. If the goal was to eliminate confusion, it failed. If the goal was to generate social integration, it failed. If the goal was to improve SL's reputation, it failed. If the goal was to remove land zoning conflicts, it failed. If the goal was to seamlessly integrate kids into SL, it failed. In plain language, the 'Adult' zoning and content policy was an 'Epic Fail'.

"I think the easiest thing would be to tell the system you want a real world day/night cycle for 52° 30′ 2″ N (for Berlin) and let the system do all the work (using real world month/day) instead of having to update it manually." -------------------------------------------------------------- Before Windlight, the sun and moon would rise in the northeast and set in the northwest. It was not only realistic, but also quite beautiful. The flaw with Windlight is that the sun and moon now rise due east and set due west. It is artificial and boring. Moreover, the day settings for Windlight are utterly incomprehensible. I agree that one should be able to plug in latitude, longitude and date. Let the system create the entire sky, day and night, including phases of the moon, planets and constellations. This would not only add a layer of realism to SL, but it could be augmented with optional graphics to teach astronomy (show big dipper, show Virgo, show Mars etc.)

"Face books turnover for simple games is huge, all games people just look at it with envy, they never predicted it." ----------------------------------------------------- @ Linden Lab I will give you the key to life, the universe and everything: Second Life is NOT a game. It never was a a game, it will never be a game, it has nothing to do with games. Is the United States a game? Hey, it has the Superbowl, so the US must be a game, right? The Olympics will be held in the UK this year. Does that mean the UK has become a game? Canada loves hockey and India loves cricket. Are Canada and India games? Of course not. One can play games in India or Canada or Australia, but India, Canada and Australia are not games. The day Linden Lab understands this basic, simple, obvious concept is the day Linden Lab begins to save Second Life from its death spiral. So, what is Second Life? It is a virtual world, a virtual country, a parallel reality separate from ordinary reality, an alternative reality, a new social and economic geography, a 'New World' that floats above the 'Old World'. In order to succeed as an alternative reality, Second Life must become graphically superb (more real than real) and culturally neutral (international). Linden Lab understood this in 2006 before the great managerial shakeup that led to Second Life's five-year decline.

From its inception in 2002 until the Teen merger of 2010, Second Life has been 'adult' (18+). There were PG-rated sims for those who preferred a more residential environment, but SL was designed, built and operated as an adult world from day one. http://deltango.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/linden-lab-sexual-policy/ In 2009, Mark Kingdon, the previous CEO of Linden Lab, made a series of errors resulting in 30% staff cuts, the closing of foreign branch offices and the loss of his own job. Chief among those errors was the Disneyfication and Facebookization of Second Life. While there was a rising demand for a PG continent, Linden Lab - ignoring all advice - made the critical mistake of creating instead an XXX continent (Zindra), generating massive disruption across the mainland. This was soon followed by merging the Teen Grid and lowing the age level to 13. The current situation is a mess. The demand for a PG continent remains unsatisfied. Meanwhile, the rest of the mainland remains a patchwork of adult (18+) and PG (13-17) sims. Zindra (XXX) is a ghetto. No one is happy. The solution is, was and will always be the creation of a PG continent and the return of the existing mainland to an adult (18+) rating.

Politically, the problem is worldwide. The United States at least has the Constitution. The UK has no such protection. While I am very unhappy with Big Brother, I am far more concerned by Little Sister. No sane professional wants his RL splashed across the internet. As I said in a previous thread, many teenagers will have to change their legal names when they graduate university and start looking for work. "Ah, Ms. Jentsen, or should I call you EvilHateWitch, I see you have applied for the Customer Relations position." "Is that a wild drinking party you attended in that photo?" "I see you are a smoker, we don't hire smokers." "Wasn't your acquaintance Doug arrested for cannabis possession? How well do you know Doug? I'm sorry, but we can't take the risk of hiring the acquaintance of a known felon." "I see from your blog (June 2008) that you didn't denounce the XYZ protest. Are you an XYZ sympathizer?" And then there is the nightmare coming from the marketing side (watch the entire video): http://www.g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/ Combined, this is the hell that awaits us. It is why we shall seek shelter in virtual worlds..

The confusion is that 'username' implies an 'under the hood' tag totally disconnected from avatar name (which one presumes can be chosen later in the signup process). So, someone goes to sign up and types gagaga123 as a username (perhaps this is a username he uses regularly for bank accounts or online shopping accounts etc. where username is invisible to everyone except himself). Needless to say, the message not to forget your username makes perfect sense. Who forgets his online banking username and password? He is so used to this way of doing things that it never occurs to him that his username will become his avatar name. He expects instead something like this: Username: gagaga123 Password: ******* First Name: David Last Name: Johnson Imagine his surprise when he logs inworld to discover, horror or horrors, his username floating above his head in big bright letters. Not only is it the last thing he expected, but now the whole world knows his private username. Worse, someone walks up to him and says, "S'up gaga? Welcome to SL."

You are so right. In addition to the current signup process being misleading in terms of avatar name, there is huge temptation for new residents to choose something like TotalMoronInYourFace as a bit of a laugh. It works great for a couple days at the sludgepool of Ahern, but, gee, that great looking guy in Miramare (who could really help me and, ahem, maybe take me dancing) ignores me completely.

Going back to the original post, I am reminded that this thread, now 10 pages long, is the result of a tweet on the MSL feed by the CEO, picked up by a resident and posted on the SL GD Forum. Bad habits die hard at Linden Lab - especially the Marie Antoinette attitude of "Let them eat cake". One would think after all these years and so many mistakes, the company would actively seek the knowledge and experience of its userbase. Nothing has been posted on the SL Blog for over a month. Meanwhile, valuable insights by residents are scattered across the web (SLU, NWN, private fora, business blogs, resident blogs, Flickr, inworld IMs etc.) as Marie Antoinette paces back and forth in her ivory tower waiting for the coders in the basement to "bang on things" so that she can gleefully toss them to us from her balcony. When the big day finally arrives, we reach up our arms and catch...gloves with six fingers, electric cheese straighteners, backwards mirror sunglasses, liver-flavored breath mints and the occasional anvil or ship's anchor, which wipes out an entire village community. Instead of tweeting that the company is working on the names problem, how about a thread in the SLB that goes something like this: Resident Names Problem - Request for Advice Dear Residents Experts, We face some conceptual and technical problems in restoring resident names. Our immediate goal is to reinstate first and last names. This creates opportunities for additional features related to resident names (titles, partners, family or business names etc.). We are considering the following problems and features: adding new fields (title, clan, merchant name etc.) enabling residents to retain existing single names enabling all residents to change their names at any time converting an existing 'display name' into a title enabling residents to display only part of their names/titles (eg. first name only) creating a middle name (first, middle, last) limiting the size of the name fields to 10 characters limiting the composition of the names fields to letters and numbers only We welcome your suggestions and advice. We wish to complete the first stage of this consultation process by the end of February. We will then post a draft of the plan at the beginning of March for review and further discussion. We hope to have the final draft available by the end of March. Thank you for your valuable enthusiasm and expertise. We couldn't do it without you Rodvik

An avatar name is like a Tattoo. Be damn sure you can live with it forever. Some suggestions: make it memorable (or you will be forgotten) be original (there are a billion Janes and Daves) avoid media names (do you really want to steal Mike Tyson's tiger?) keep it short (you will soon get sick of typing Doodleflowerinmygardenohwow Schnignofferscope) Capitalize (unless you want to be considered a sexual submissive) avoid numbers (unless you are a clock)

Could LL provide a technical method for businesses to promote their brands, perhaps by linking a brand or business name to an avatar? Great idea. Could it be possible to enable an avatar to be a business entity (firstname = business name, last name = slogan)? Why not? It should be possible to construct a way for residents to select from a list what names they wish to display. I really must sit down and write a complete essay on the current state of Second Life, but the entire SL project makes perfect sense if one realizes that SL's 'killer app' is being a virtual world - a virtual country, a political economy, a geographic and social space no different from Brazil or Paris or America. One can have games in SL, businesses, recreation, homes. All these things and much more are possible. Second Life is the envelope into which all these things fit and, just like RL, it matters that the infrastructure works. For the past decade, London has been upgrading its Victorian water and sewage systems. LL needs to rebuild its databases. As for SLM, while it has reduced the need for commercial land, it has facilitated the development of residential land. The current land problem is not due to SLM, it is due to the fact that SL is a 2006 Nokia phone at 2006 prices.