Ayesha Askham

@Oskar Thankyou, Oskar, for your clear and concise explanation. I, for one, am much wiser as a result, and the comments you make about TIMEWARP chime very well with our experiences on our home sim. I also did not know that Linux was your OS, though it makes perfect sense that it should be. I wish all Linden Lab staff were as clear in their communication as yourself, there'd be a lot less venting in these threads, I suspect (though some folks just like a good old rant, I think!) There were some oddities in terms of enormous spikes of low TD and high ping times which were not at the UK end of the chain last UK evening, about 9:30pm BST, but they appear to be gone so I guess it was just the last knockings. Once again, Oskar, thankyou.

@Peggy "Privy to a Private company's plans"? No, of course not! But I DO, as a user, expect a service provider, which is what Linden Lab, at its most basic, is, to give a reasoned estimate of the time of withdrawal of a service. I do not contest their right to withdraw it, but I do expect to be treated with more consideration and respect than currently is the case. "For the forseeable future" is an empty statement. A simple "Yes they are finished", or "No we have more work to do", is all that is required. It is NOT too much to expect. The statements given on the Status Page vary with the competence and motivation level of the posting technician. As I have said many a time and oft, what LL need there is someone with genuine communication skill, something they singularly lack. Linden Lab created SecondLife, we use it, I'm not sure that ANYONE understands it!

@ MasoDevotina I suspect you will find many suffering similar issues, I've seen several postings of this sort recently. I quote a group IM I was given earlier today, unfortunately I do not have the source information: " It has been identified that a number of regions (currently estimating 10-15) in our estate have been showing strange performance issues, crashes, failed TP's etc. since sometime last night. An emergency call was put in last night and I've been following up on the list today, some have improved. All data about the sims having issues have been sent to LL and they assure us they are putting their techs on it. I feel that it is probably some shared resource and not local content. I will post an update." Now this issue suggests that a cluster of servers is in trouble, it may be the local ISP, who knows, but TP has been truly awful today. As to how many sims of Homestead level are placed on a server I do not know, but with roughly 1250 scripts, and 3000 objects on our Homestead, I can be fairly sure that it is not taxed. At one point this UK evening...about 1:30pm SLT ish I saw a sim ping spike to 24seconds!! It was not a local issue and soon after all apparent TD and ping issues went away. I don't know what is causing it, but I DO know that LL must have some idea and as usual are simply saying nothing. It is hardly worth my getting annoyed by such things since nothing is ever said officially, but in common with many who enjoy their SL, I find it irritating in the extreme.

@Everyone, but with special focus on Peggy As Joy says, the issue recently, Peggy, has not been the weekly server software updates. Nearly everyone in SL understands the need for these, and they are scheduled sufficiently well to be no impediment to participation in SL. The major disruption caused by the OS upgrade was a different matter, with twice-daily tranches of work lasting up to 6 hours. The communication of these outages was shoddy at first, but did improve over time (to be fair it could not have got much worse!) What many are asking, not unreasonably, is for Linden Lab to tell us when this work is over. Explanations of the benefits gained from the work are less likely to be forthcoming, since I suspect the reasons are quite complex, and since Linden Lab treats its user-base as it would a person with acute learning disability, I won't be holding my breath for one. I too recall the earlier days of SL, but that comparison is not valid here. As to the frequently trotted out "That's technology....live with it", sorry Peggy, it is not appropriate to this issue in SL. Most of us don't want Linden Lab to stop their innovation - just to control it a bit better and communicate with their user-base.

@Peggy and Tracer You points about the upload and support level of the stream are very valid and poorly understood by too many inworld performers. Some really do need to address that issue as a matter of priority. Sim performance and chat lag are very much server related, and despite the individual variability of server performance, there has been a marked increase in the latter is recent weeks. As to what is causing this increased susceptiblitly, I have not yet seen a credible explanation. Script performance is also definitely poorer in general, though I suspect the root cause may not be the Mesh-related changes, but the OS upgrade being in-progress. The jury is still out on that one. One thing I have noticed, and this is a phenomenon not related purely to myself, is that when teleporting between channels, ie from one of the RC channels to main server, the TP time is higher and post-TP rez time is much longer. No, it isn't bandwidth-related. I notice a longer "hand-off" time coupled with a longer receive time during teleports. So in short, SL is not happy at present and individual settings are becoming much more critical in determining whether one has a good experience or not.

@Hitomi I was going to do just that, actually, but the Tuesday restart on Main server did it for me, we were moved to another server during the restart, something which doesn't usually occur, so I guess the faulty server was noticed. I'm reluctant to do manual restarts unless essential, since I have found Homestead servers to be hugely variable in their resilience. This time we got a good one!

@Oskar I'll try to suggest some things that I see as lacking, but I think MB Robonaught is far more learned in some of the more technical aspects of SL and maybe his "Wish-List" contains some things your colleagues could address. The way I see it is this: The Grid Status page and the Official Blog are the places where most people go (or should go) to be updated on issues within and occasionally without (your service providers) SL. I'm guessing that the Status Page is operated on a shift basis, in order to cover the 24 hour nature of SL. Now it has to be said that the Grid Status Page is very variable in its response times and its content, ranging from the informative to the blankly silent, and I suppose it is due to the fact that whoever updates that page has other, sometimes more pressing duties. I think it also reflects the variable involvement with SL that some Linden Lab staff have. Now perhaps it would be good to give responsibility for writing that page to a single role with as close to 24 hour support as possible, that way some consistency would be obtained. Also it would be wise to give that role to someone with good communication skills so that LL can be put across as caring (as many of you are - I know that), something that doesn't get across at present. I'm not technically savvy enough to give you details, I'll leave that to the likes of MB Robonaught. Perhaps more emphasis could be put on pointing folk at the status page (Yes I know some folk would need to be physically dragged there)...but if there was better and more consistent info there perhaps more WOULD use it? Some hiatuses(?) in SL never get aired at all, despite us knowing full well that there is an issue, and that bugs a lot of folk I talk to. It IS getting better, Oskar, and maybe that is why I feel more inclined to pester you and your ilk, and there are some folk for whom it will never be good enough - I suspect they like to complain so much they'd be lost if there was nothing to complain about! Recent issues re a new Viewer UI, script-permission changes, just what the OS upgrade meant...all these would be suitable candidates for Official Blog Posts, yet all I've seen lately are Fashion updates, which, while interesting and somewhat entertaining, are not what a lot of folk want to see. Some of what I've suggested is probably not terribly practical in these straitened times, but at least in principle I believe they would begin to change the perception of SL as a system made by geeks for geeks and run by geeks. PS Edit: Some of the more popular TPVs have the recent Status Page topics as part of the login splash screen, so if the information there was improved Linden Lab would reach a wider audience quite easily.

@Nalates So they are production people, not PR people? So they hire some competent PR staff - simple. As to not knowing what will happen, Yes, sometimes that is true...that does NOT mean that they do not need to tell us what they are doing. You appear to suggest that unofficial gossip via independent blogs is the best way to hear about what's going on with SL?? That, in itself is a condemnation of Linden Lab's own communicative ability. Yes things seem to be better at the moment, but will it stay that way? Since we do not know (really) what is being done or for how long the disruption will last, that is really not good enough. The defence that "They're only Geeks, what do you expect?" simply will not wash.

@MB I don't usually bother with direct responses, but this post cries out for it. I don't disagree with you in a lot of instances but.... 1) the sudden and inexplicable problems on our sim were not due to script-memory load. Yes, the server was stable...so stable I suspect a nuclear blast wouldn't have perturbed it - it simply did not respond. 2) the repeated teleport failures were not script load related in any way, neither in terms of script numbers nor memory allocation. There simply was a problem, which, thankfully seems to have gone away. Oskar and many of his peers have been working hard to improve our experience of SL, and I understand that as well as anyone. However.....there is still a yawning gap between the level of communication needed between Linden Lab and it's customers, the users of SL, and that which they currently provide. Unless and until Linden Lab realise that they need to have a meaningful dialogue with its customer base, that customer base will, by and large, hold Linden Lab in doubt and disbelief. Such situations do not lead to cooperation or positive outcomes. (Office hours are inconvenient to many and selective in the extreme.)

@Maestro I didn't say that Nouveau WAS on Aditi (I could've been clearer in what I said!). However there is no doubt that something screwwy is going on, since I am now very firmly ruthed, and I cannot shift it. I've just done some performance checks my end and it is not my net or PC. SL just won't send me my skin, shape or clothes. I am THIS close to telling LL to stuff it.

Oskar, and others in server support: Just what is going on? Dozens, nay, hundreds of folk are being badly impacted by these seemingly endless tranches of restarts and upgrades. Now recently I had the misfortune to TP (one of the few days recently when teleports were functioning), to a region called Nouveau, which blithley announced that it was running server version 11.10.11.0 - an impossible ID and supposedly on the BETA Grid Aditi. How on Earth (real or virtual) did that happen? And BTW it happened twice, it wasn't a fluke - ask Hitomi Tiponi. Also despite meticulous sim management, our server, despite returning apparently ideal figures for a Homestead (ie TD consistently above 0.95 and script time <5ms, with upwards of 15ms spare time) we have what amounts to server cardiac arrest when someone logs in or out! Teleports result in failed handoffs almost everywhere, with the poor av ending up under a prim floor somewhere - something I haven't experienced in 2 years. It's not just me, I have testimony from several others about this, and one av has specifically checked her script memory to ensure it stays low. Something is not going well with this Upgrade, and it is high time we were given some information about what Linden Lab is doing, and how much longer we must endure this. I understand the reason for the weekly server updates...you know that I'm not an idiot! But what is going on now needs some explanation if LL is not to see a mass exodus. PLEASE JUST TELL US. Update 9am SLT: after 2 solid hours of work I finally managed to get the damned asset server to give me my clothes back and De-Ruthed myself. Thanks to those in Phoenix/Firestorm Viewer Support. As far as I can see, teloporting is back to "normal" now, so maybe the New Server software on Main Server works a bit better. I also notice that our sim-server has changed again, which does not normally occur at a server version roll. That may also have helped.

OK This is getting beyond a joke,and it is certainly NOT what we pay for. Our sim is one of the best run homesteads in SL and it is being brought to its knees by whatever is going on in SL. Logging on and off is almost stopping the sim..some sounds actually do stop. Even TP inside the sim is slow and unreliable, to other sims it is almost impossible. It is not just me and it is NOT script count related. What on earth is going on??

@Hitomi Region is Nouveau, and the Server version is 11.10.11.0 - sorry I remembered it wrong. I just checked...it is still running it.

@All on this thread SL today is about as messed up as I've seen a SLunday. My home sim is apparently running well, frankly a little too well, from recent experience. Teleports have been diabolical, when completed. Several time I have finished up beneath the floor of the sim I am attempting to leave, as the sim-server botches its handoff. That is something I haven't seen for 2 years. Now if that were just me I'd be looking at my ISP, my router and all that jazz. It wasn't, it was several people, some having a worse time than me. One sim that I did TP into announced that is was running Server version 11.10.10.0 - pardon? - a BETA grid version on Agni?? One friend found herself walking inverted on a sim she visited!! Now I've been calm and patient up to now and in truth there is little that I can do except relate my experiences, but this is becoming a farce.

Good God, Ann, you mean that just a few weeks after the mess that is LL V3, we must expect LLV4??

@Wolf Egad, we have discovered the Bard of the Restart!:smileyvery-happy: @ Hitomi I only wish I could meet these restarts with as much good humour and wit that Wolf did!:matte-motes-bashful-cute-2: One unfortunate consequence of the Grid Wide Roll was that our Homestead got bumped off a really smooth server to a really rather tired old thing. <sigh> Fat Lady? I think I'm at the wrong theatre!

@Everyone on this thread After 9 days of restarts I would have thought Linden Lab would be able to give some estimate of how much longer these OS upgrades were going on for. It is cetainly true that on the whole we residents have seen little or no actual disruption. My sim has only had one slightly extended outage, and I think I count myself fortunate. LL have been assiduous in announcing tranches of restarts when they are occurring, and that, I guess, is all we will get, if past performance is anything to go on. I still think a progress report on the status page would calm any rising doubts, which I hear, but see no evedence of in the forums. Has anyone seen the Fat Lady backstage yet?:smileywink: Edit: this is not specifically aimed at you, Nalates, the thread decided my post's target, not me! PS and Update: Seems to me like the folk at LL are trying to put out as much info as they can via the Status page, it's just that it looks a little forbidding today, and I know a lot of my European and East Coast friends are going to run and hide until this is all over. Far from being backstage, I'm wondering if the Fat Lady has even been booked yet!

@Nalates,Wolf and anybody else My sim is a Homestead, and it hasn't been in the Magnum RC channel for several weeks now. As for The OS restarts being confined to "Off-peak" times, that is only partly true if you reead the Grid Status page. It's tough if you happen to live outside the USA then. This is a big job when you consider how many servers have to be upgraded (8000+ I understand) and it can't be handled like a simple (sic) server software update. This process is throwing up more than its fair share of issues, with some servers not seeming to want to restart after the upgrade, and some odd and very unwelcome changes in script function. I said we were in for a bumpy ride last week, and I think I was right. I don't hear the fat lady singing yet.

@Cincia Yes all seems well, so it was probably just a glitch on either my PC or my ISP. Also it didn't help that I was looking for a post that had been deleted by its author. D'oh! @Void Fair point, it isn't part of the Grid, but it IS part of SL, but point taken.

"ANNOUNCEMENT: System will be down for maintenance starting Tuesday 2011.10.04 at 10:00pm PT. The length of the downtime is unknown." This on JIRAs. SVC-7294 is not updating...I have emails of posts thhat aren't showing...how come? But more important, NO NOTOFICATION on the Grid Status page. Why not?

@Maestro Thanks for that rapid confirmation. We rezzed the Owl, and it functions properly again, so bug is definitely fixed. I don't think it is working "quite" as it did, but it is more than good enough! (SVC-7308). Owl update: Something odd is occurring. The Owl doesn't find it's coordinates properly, so it may have been damaged in the manifestation of the bug...or of course it might just have broken! It flies OK, so I'm sure it is not in fact directly connected with the Prim Physics issue. ( We can always buy a new one!):smileywink: Owl Update 2: Could this behaviour be SVC-7348?

@ anyone reading this: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Deploys-for-the-week-of-2011-10-03/m-p/1144729/highlight/false#M2462

Thanks Maestro Better late than Never! Also please pass on a "Get Well Soon" message to Oskar for me, if you would be so good. One question...does this release include the fix for SVC-7305 that was running on RCs? I don't see it in the notes.

I know SL's OS is being upgraded this week in a series of restarts, but we ususlly have a blog post and release notes for the scheduled Rolls...none this week...anyone know why? The Grid Status page tells us that they're happening and my home sim is being rolled right now, so.... Oskar?

@Nalates The real gripe here is that NO Official info, other than on the Grid Status page has been given at all. Yes those interested can probably drill down far enough to find it, but otherwise it is down to ordinary residents to pass out info...and THAT is how rumours start. @Void, the pop-up was so much more noticeable than the chat line, you are right, but LL cannot win there I recall folk complaining of "How irritating" it was <sigh>. Overall I think that while LL is improving its communication with its SL users, it still has some way to go. I do not agree that some minimal info on the Official Blog is TMI, it is far better than unfounded rumours.