[Welcoming Teen Grid Organizations to 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).

[Saying Farewell to Avatars United]

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.

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

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.

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

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.

[Changes to Display Names Based on Your Feedback]

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.

[Second Life Economy Stable in Q2 2010]

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.

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Do you  folks now begin to understand the consequences of ignoring your  experienced customers?  Don't get me wrong; it's your company.  You  folks don't have to listen to anyone.  Linden Lab can make its decisions  however it wants.  But... we customers do hold the purse strings.  And  in the end Q, it will be us, not Linden Lab, that makes the ultimate decisions... one way or the other.  That's the point I and others have been trying to get across for years.

Q, what is driving people crazy is Linden Lab's refusal to recognize the vast knowledge and experience of many residents - some of whom are high-level professionals with RL billing rates of US1,000 per day. On issue after issue, Linden Lab has ignored carefully written reports that would normally cost US$5,000-$10,000 from a private research firm such as Forrester. Linden Lab is getting this material for FREE yet it tosses it in the trash and merrily proceeds to make mistake after mistake like Homer Simpson on a mission.

Since the company has no serious competition, it is difficult to measure counterfactuals, but a reasonable proxy is the success of the Emerald (now Phoenix) viewer. Here, in a small area where there is competition, a handful of private developers working for free have taken the lead from Linden Lab. The best that LL can come up with is a dog's breakfast designed by ex-employees of the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture.

In general, then, Linden Lab in its ivory tower does not see the damage to its reputation that has been accruing over the past three years. The viewer is but one instance of a whole litany of problems that Linden Lab has created instead of solved. It is this history that is coloring much of the discussion on almost every topic in the blogs and fora.

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For me, double-click TP is a must have. The minimap too is a must have. It has been a permanent feature of the top right of my screen for the past four years.

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I think it is interesting to compare this thread with this one:

http://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/36034?tstart=0

I was impressed with how quickly Phoenix rose from the ashes of Emerald; a slick, professional turnaround within days of a major crisis. Note the high level of customer satisfaction, the relief and enthusiasm among the userbase. When was the last time anyone was enthusiastic about anything done by Linden Lab?

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I had an easier time with the HIPIHI viewer and that was all in Chinese.

I laughed when I read this because I had the same experience!

I drool at the thought of how I could organize the bottom on the 1.XX viewer if I could only customize it.

YES.

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I am not an engineer. I have been in Second Life almost daily for four years. I have found the Emerald viewer to be the best designed viewer (most intuitive, most powerful, most flexible, most intelligent) I have used so far. Conversely, I have found the LL 2.1 viewer to be the worst viewer I could possibly imagine.

Between 1/3 and 1/2 of your residents share my opinion.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to reach a conclusion from this information.

Edit: I have just switched to the Phoenix viewer (the new Emerald). Works like a charm. I won't be contributing to the Snowstorm Project because I no longer believe that Linden Lab has the design skills or technical capabilities to produce a viewer. I increasingly see Linden Lab as a Soviet ministry instead of a commercial enterprise.