Deltango Vale

What angers people most is that Linden Lab is dishonest. A thousand times the company was asked if there were plans to merge the grids. A thousand times the company said 'No!" The main grid is 18 and over, so no “parental guidance” is necessary. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Maturity_ratings There are no immediate plans to change Teen Second Life. (as of August 2010, now removed) http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Adult-oriented_content_controls_FAQ Tali Rosca: No. But are there plans to allow teens on the main grid? ANSWER Blondin Linden: NO Blondin Linden: LET ME SAY THAT 2X - NO http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/352/01/312352/13.html The agony of rezoning (Zindra, XXX content policy) was digested - painfully - and, as it turns out, at great cost (Mature and PG mainland values have fallen about 66% in the past year) - on the understanding that Linden Lab wished to reach a wider adult (grown-up) audience by providing "a more predictable user experience". Would the Teen Grid be merged with the Main Grid? A perfectly reasonable question from people who needed a predictable policy framework (business owners, landowners, content creators, general residents). The answer from Linden Lab was always, "No, no, no, we will not merge the grids." This policy reversal, therefore, has not only introduced great unpredictability, it has ruined Linden Lab's reputation in the eyes of its residents - especially those who pay tier and produce goods and services. No one will ever believe a word you say anymore. You can't be trusted. And you will ignore these 500+ posts just as you ignored the thousands of posts concerning the Zindra/XXX content policy. You will bulldoze your way through everyone in your mad quest for whatever blind idealism or unethical business practices you feel are appropriate for the moment. It is embarrassing to watch you throw away your reputation so flippantly.

How many teens are we talking about? 500? 1000? Was it really worth causing so much frustration for so many residents for the sake of 1000 kids?

The fresh supply of new 18+ customers for the grid is potentially endless by nature if you advertise SL properly. The simple solution is, to just wait on them and doing some professional advertising to catch them. Agree. Moreover, teens are fickle. They flit from flower to flower like bees in a meadow. When I think of the misery that Linden Lab has inflicted on its residents over the past year with its 'XXX', Zindra and teen policies - all for the sake of a handful of kids who will dart off to the next cool thing in the blink of an eye - I begin to question the sanity of Linden Lab as a company.

Inworld loco parentis I believe this is a foolish policy that will undermine Second Life's core strengths as a virtual world. My detailed thoughts on the subject are here: http://deltango.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/a-strategic-assessment-of-second-life-part-2/

Bah, I guess UK residents are out of the loop

Something no one has mentioned so far is the "whole-universe-on-a single-page" design fault. Since the days of Plato and Aristotle, it has been known that human beings organize information hierarchically in terms of categories: sets and subsets, classes and sub-classes, general to specific. For example: LivingOrganism->Plant->Tree->OakTree->WhiteOakTree. For some reason, many web designers are unable to think in terms of categories and therefore put every scrap of information on one page. Without structure, such websites are functionally useless. Even after some thought, SL Marketplace has got it wrong at times. No one thinks of Mainland or Private Islands as the highest-level category; they think of Land as the highest-level category with Mainland and Private Islands as sub categories. Much confusion results when people scan the list alphabetically for 'Land' because 'Land' is nowhere to be found. Only savvy residents have the wit to understand: "Ahh, there is Mainland and...okay, down there is Private Islands; weird, but I get it now." The noob goes out of his mind looking for 'Land'. The same problem plagues the help pages. One gets flashburn when visiting help because about a terabyte of information is crammed onto the top page. It's simply impossible to read it or make sense of it. Therefore, I strongly suggest Linden Lab hire someone who is capable or organizing information hierarchically. Present only high-level concepts on the first page then build a tree structure down to more detailed information based on subcategories. I think you will find that human beings respond positively to such a structure.

I sometimes get the impression that Torley, Guy and Philip are the only people working at Linden Lab. I have visions of a converted warehouse in the outskirts of San Francisco, rows of empty workbenches with flickering screens and Torley in his swivel-chair rolling across the floor from keyboard to keyboard, laughing and talking to himself as he manages the entire public relations side of the company. Off in the distance, I see Guy in a corner near the stairs, single-handedly managing the Main Grid. Philip pops in from time to time, plunks himself down at a random desk, does a 12-hour shift of frantic programming then collapses in an old army hammock stretched between two rusting water pipes. Now and again, the occasional semi-retired Linden empties the wastepaper baskets and passes a mop over the floor. High on the wall, Max Headroom babbles from an antique plasma screen. Thank you Torley for staying in touch. Some of us residents are collecting used clothes and canned goods to send you guys in appreciation for holding Second Life together. We love you.

Excellent news. Thank you. Regarding groups, it would be wiser to increase to 30, test, then increase to 35, test, then increase to 40. If you increase to 40 then scale back to 25, hundreds of newly created groups will be destroyed.

I love classic clouds! The Windlight clouds are nice as background, but SL without classic clouds would look...sickly. For those using the 'classic' viewer, one can turn classic clouds on or off via: Advanced-Rendering-Types-Clouds

Maybe I'm missing something, but, if the transaction was successful, it should appear in the transaction history of your SL account page. If the item is recorded in your transaction history then it should also be recorded in the seller's transaction history. Personally, I'm not sure it's worth bothering LL customer support over three bucks. My experience is that some sellers bend over backwards to fix mistakes while other give you the finger. Needless to say, word gets around. Sellers with good reputations prosper; sellers with bad reputations go out of business. While I don't mean to disparage your complaint, I sometimes wonder if folks don't expect too much from LL customer support. The company would have to hire half of India to deal with every single complaint. Life (RL and SL) is not perfect. Sometimes, we just have to roll with it and move on.

I think I can sum up the general level of frustration. Many people are paying hundreds of US$ to Linden Lab every month. I personally pay US$500 per month, every month, whether I have an income or not. That works out to US$6,000 per year on top of my Premium membership. Do you pay US$6,000 per year for car insurance? Helathcare? If so, do you expect good customer service? If you bought a new TV for $6,000 and there was a problem with it, would you not expect prompt and reliable assistance? If your doctor says, "Take two aspirin, look up your problem on WebMD and call me in the morning," would you not be a bit angry? I think Linden Lab must start taking Second Life seriously. You have an exceptional product, yet you treat it like a toy. For some strange reason, you seem willing to squander your reputation on whipsaw policy changes, weird outsourcing projects and whimsical strategies that are utterly incompatible with the core nature of your product. I think Philip is a good CEO. I believe his heads-down assault on long-term infrastructure problems is correct and necessary. Yes, it will take time to get your house in order after three years of failed initiatives, but trying to convert Second Life into Habbo 2 is just as silly as trying to convert it into Facebook 3D. You are killing the golden goose by trying to convert it into a duck. Give us some assurance that our US$500 or US$1,500 or, in some cases, US$50,000 per month is worth it. If not, you may find that all you have in another year is free, Basic accounts.

The policies have to be fixed first or there will be no-one left to care about the meshes, the shadows, the mods allowing 500 people on a sim, etc. You are right, of course, but, sadly, Linden Lab is deaf to all advice. Rarely have I seen a company so out of touch with it's own product. If Linden Lab were a public limited company, it would be ripe for a takeover. In my opinion, Microsoft would be wise to buy Linden Lab. It is obvious that SL is the backbone of an IT revolution on the scale of the internet (1995) and Windows 3.0 (1990). I can easily see Second Life becoming "Skylight" (Windows 9). It makes perfect sense to combine a cloud-based operating system with a virtual world. Forget Snowcrash; I strongly recommend an earlier novel by William Gibson called Neuromancer.

Superb article. I am undecided whether LL is putting its house in order for a buyout or cleaning up the mess from its failed 3D Facebook strategy. When, oh Lord, will LL realize that SL is a 'virtual country' and not just another internet application? As for SLM taking stores out of inworld SL, perhaps this is a good thing. Most inworld stores are poorly designed lag pits, which are a pain to actually shop in - if you can even find them. As for club owners who bracket their clubs with a mall, would it not be better to have ads pointing to SLM? It would not only free up space and reduce lag, but someone on the dancefloor would much prefer to open a window to SLM than walk/teleport/cam off the dancefloor to go to the mall. Goth event? Want a new necklace? Open SLM in a new window, search, buy, deliver, wear - all without missing a beat while dancing and talking. Perfect.

After a long, hard summer, it's great to see Linden Lab back at work. Recovering from three years of neglect is no easy task, but I believe Philip is right: infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure - technological, managerial and customer support. Policy remains a big problem area, but one step at a time.

I wish they'd change the "buy" terminology to "lease" everywhere in the SL experience so the UI would match the material I write for my estate. I run into too many people who get confused because my documentation describes taking a lease while the Viewer says "Buy Land". I can't bring myself to use LL's misleading terminology, though. Agree. LL needs to bite the bullet on this one as part of the Fast Easy Fun program. In theory, all that is required is a simple test in the software to know which window to present for About Land. If estate, present window A; if mainland, present window B. A far more sophisticated approach - and truly impressive - would be to build lease/rental functionality into the About Land window. You might be interested in this: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-15679?

Grant, Many thanks for getting SLM up and running relatively quickly. My experience so far has been very good. I will, though, remind everyone that: Private Islands -> Parcel Sales should be changed to: Private Islands -> Parcel Leases. One cannot buy or sell a private island parcel; one can only lease a parcel from the island owner. While private islands can be subdivided into leasehold parcels, those leasehold parcels cannot be bought or sold. Only an entire island can be bought or sold - whole, not in part. It is very confusing to new residents who (falsely) believe they are buying an island parcel. Fixing the terminology in SLM would be a partial solution to a major, longstanding problem.

The most important thing to remember is that Second Life was not created as an enhanced communication platform for RL organizations. SL Enterprise failed (as predicted). 3D Facebook failed (as predicted). Why? Because Second Life was not designed and built for that purpose. Second Life was designed and built as a virtual 'country' - a parallel universe of privacy and fantasy for adults (grown ups) from around the world to escape the constraints of their RL existence and transact with each other within an advanced political economy. As such, Second Life prospered. While inviting RL educational organizations (and RL businesses and government agencies) to participate in Second Life is commendable, Linden Lab must not put the cart before the horse. Education is only a tiny fraction of the whole. Linden Lab must learn the lessons of SL Enterprise, 3D Facebook and Avatars United and return to its roots. Key now is keeping underage players a million miles away from residents. The alternative, Disneyfication, is toxic to Second Life.

There are many many merchants (as an example) who now operate on PG land specifically for the purpose of being reachable by the teen market when that happens. Splitting the mainland would require something Zindra-esque to take place, and we all know how much happy fun that all was. I accept your point about not being Pareto Optimal, but, in my opinion, the non-educational market for 16/17s is so small as to be insignificant. The benefits of upgrading mainland sims from PG to Mature so greatly outweigh the disadvantages as to be self-evident. Remember, Mature = Moderate = normal. It is critically important to prevent Disneyfication of the main grid.

The estates for the 13 - 15 year olds will be far removed from the mainland. That is true. However, the 16 and 17 year olds will be allowed on PG land on the mainland. And if that was all it was, I wouldn't be the slightest bit concerned. I have a suggestion. Upgrade all mainland PG sims to Mature. This solves two problems: 1) it disentangles teens from adults and 2) it rationalizes the mainland into two uniform sections (Zindra XXX and Regular Mature). PG would then be the appropriate rating for teen sections of the grid associated with parental/teacher guidance. I believe this is a simple, easy and elegant solution that is also Pareto Optimal (some people are made better off while no one is made worse off).

In my opinion, it is wise to close Avatars United. The Facebook 3D strategy took Linden Lab away from its core competence: virtual, not real, worlds. Second Life's unique characteristic is that it is an alternative to RL - a parallel world of privacy and fantasy - a new country in which people from around the world can escape the constraints of their RL. While Second Life may facilitate communication between RL organizations, it was not designed for that purpose. For this reason, it is important that Linden Lab put the cart before the horse and undo many of the mistake of the past three years.

Anyone else get the feeling LL employees spend too much time on Facebook and not enough in Second Life? For the past three years, I have got the feeling that LL Board members and senior managers spend too much time on Jupiter.

Just in my humble opinion, the Name Change feature should be a premium service offer. It would cut down on greifing and people stealing names or trying to impersonate another resident. LL needs to make a better and greater distinction between "Free Basic" accounts and premium accounts and this is one of those times it should be done. Agree.

We need a way for individuals who are concerned about impersonation to be able to protect their unique names. *** My SL Name, "Ceera Murakami", is a legally registered business name, or DBA, that I own in the real world. I have a bank account in that name, and can cash checks written to that name, just like any Hollywood actor or actress can do for their assumed stage name. I should have the same right to protect my legally registered business name that any celeberty or corporation has today. The common names like "John Brown", that might be people's real-life names, won't be likely to apply for that protection. But those of us who have invested time and money establishing our very unique names as a brand and identity for our products and services will want to protect our unique names. Agree. For some of us, our username is a brand name or logo or icon that crosses from SL to RL. Within ten years, such name-identity icons may become extremely valuable. It is therefore very important that a robust infrastructure be put in place now to protect our brand names in the future. In addition to Ceera's example, perhaps a resident runs a major blog or publishes articles in magazines and journals under his username. Alternatively, a fashion designer wishes to employ her username in a RL fashion house. It is imperative that there is no ambiguity about ownership of the name.

I am more surprised that 36% of landmass is homesteads. Would be interesting to know if there is a conversion of full estates sims to homesteads, cause if that happens, tier income should drop. Yes, this is the key question: the growth rate of full sims and the conversion rate of full sims to Homesteads.