Ayesha Askham

@ Qwaliphy So, despite it being a thread labelled "Release", release info won't be posted here...that is some sort of twisted LL logic, Yes? And Oskar provides lots of info, does he? Where? IMHO the whiteboard on its own does not qualify as "lots".

@ Oskar So, if I read what you enter correctly, THIS is where the Weekly Restart information is to be posted? Bleating that "we've only just finished" after 2 whole weeks is not confidence-inspiring. You should have been up and running as soon as the system went live! Some, nay most, of us do not have the time to join in-world groups or attend in-world meetings to get news of Grid Rolls, that is simply not practicable. Kindly remember that we do not all live in the USA, let alone on the West Coast, so timing can be and usually is an issue. Now I wonder....if I bookmark this page, will I find info on upcoming Rolls posted here? Oh, and while I remember, will you tell the elf that prepares the Grid Status page how to post hyperlinks please?:womanindifferent:

@ Digital The point, that I suspect dd.temin is trying to make, is that since the return of this communication platform, it is a long way from clear where Oskar and the Release Team will post the announcement of the weekly rolls. It is not even clear that they WILL post information on these rolls, especially after the borkage of the past 2 weeks. FWIW these new erm...blogs do not render properly on IE8, which, outside the US, a lot of folk use, and searching is difficult. Now LL may well be trying in some ways to improve its image by communicating better with its customers, but my verdict so far is EPIC FAIL, at least in regard of this platform.:smileysad:

Well, I will watch this space with interest, because so far this "New Platform" seems to be just another Linden Lab whitewash.

@ Rodvik Welcome to your Second Life, Rodvik. If, as seems likely, you actually DO get a taste of what SL offers, you'll know why most of us are so passionate about it. Sure you'll get intemperate comments and some frankly inane abuse, but most of us wish you well and hope that by seeing our commitment and enthusiasm, you will bring that energy to your time at the helm of the greatest virtual world there is. Good Luck, and see you inworld. Ay

OK. I've just been doing some fiddling with my SL account: 1) Why was the Premium stipend paid late today? It was paid just after 7am PST (3pm my time in the UK) and my account inworld didn't register it. 2) On the Membership page Support Premium Live Chat "Extended" hours are said to be "9am to 6pm PST" 3) On the Support page, Premium Live Chat is said to be 8am to 12 midnight PST Monday-Friday and 8am to 8pm PST Saturday and Sunday. In what way are shorter hours an Enhancement of Support? Am I failing to see something? Those who have had good service from Support....Good for You, you are exceptions.

@Deltango Well put, in all your points, but I don't really agree with you. I think the main stumbling block here is that Linden Lab. don't actually understand it (it being SL). For some utterly unfathomable reason, they do not take SL, or its income generating capacity seriously. You think Philip Rosedale is a good CEO; I beg to differ, and I see no evidence of his ability. His vision may be good, but his Team Directing & Team-Leadership ability must be pretty poor if you take SL's current performance as a measure. I have looked hard to see positive changes in SL in the last few months. I see none. For me, in the UK, SL seems more remote now than at any stage in the nearly 3 years I have been Premium.

I was going to quote a few folk here, but it will just make this post more complex than is necessary. 1) You get what you pay for...No, we don't. As a Premium account I now get Live chat at US office hours, ie most of the time I am asleep! 8am PDT is 4pm in the UK - not much use to me, frankly. It used to be 24 hours, because (I assumed), SL is Global, so support must be also. Seems that LL is narrowing its focus to the US market now. I cannot accept that basic accounts do not have the right to sensible support. There are too many instances of basic accounts being held due to LL's own previous poor performance. 2) I do not post in the blogs just to "rant" or "vent". I don't think that description fits many of the posters on here. 3) I'd be content if LL did restructure SL in a meaningful way. I'd love to see evidence of a Board of Directors that showed signs of knowing what they were doing and understood joined-up policy making. Recently I have seen no evidence of intelligent life at LL Board level. All I see is LLtrying to make a broken machine work by taking gear wheels out. It will not work.

@Vogt and Maurice Are you getting a feel for the response yet? It is not hard to see that you are failing on a truly monumental scale, to provide a Customer Service worthy of the name. Even after today's massive DDoS, all you can say is that the "network issue is resolved". Maybe your folk didn't understand what it was. Maybe you are scared to tell us. I'm sorry, you people are pathetic, you couldn't light a bonfire with a flamethrower. I don't like being negative, it's not in my nature, but you folk just get my engine running in a none-too-pleasant way. Provide your users (all of them) with service or die (economically, I mean). PLEASE, prove my worst suspicions groundless.

Premium Live Chat? Who to? It is 1:15pm in Britain and Support is snoring in bed. No UK office, no UK or European hours Support. What sort of Premium is that? It looks as though logins are down; I get a "Cannot connect to a simulator Login failed" error. Nothing on the Grid Status page, but clearly there's an issue, cos numbers online are dropping. Hey it's not a problem, we're not awake in the USA yet! B******T.

Oh you make your plight understood well, Hon. It is LL who are deaf, and/or stupid. This sort of trickery and abuse is rife in SL and NO ONE will do a god-damned thing about it.

I have to say that the way I read this, it seems to say: Hey Premium Accounts: we are going to give you a bit more of what you paid for. Basic Accounts: **** ***. Robbing Peter to pay Paul don't impress me much. I'm really getting Tee'd off by LL's penny-pinching attitude lately. Yes, I know we're in a slump, but this isn't cutting your coat to suit your cloth, this is scuttling the ship. Along with other posters here I have waited many many minutes to get a response (or not) from a Live Chat Operator - it don't impress me much either. Taken along with other major posts, it really looks like LL and SL are going under - and fast.

@ GreenThumb and Cyzicus I have read some idiotic postings so far in this thread, but you two take the biscuit! Anyone who has been in SL for more than a year MUST realise that Linden Lab's judgement is, to say the least, questionable. For one thing, GreenThumb, this grid merger is NOT being done for the greater good. It is being done for economic reasons. Ask any VR educator if they think LL has the well-being of teens at heart. Cyzicus, there are now far too many well-cited examples of what will surely happen to a hapless SL resident on this thread for a reasonable person to doubt that, I do not intend to elaborate. While I do believe there are good, sensible people at Linden Lab, they are not making policy and are not at the helm. I am afraid that precedent makes my case for me.

@ Wayward4now Your comment leaves me feeling pretty bleak. However, I do not believe that the Linden Lab policy makers are bright enough to be quite THAT Machiavellian. There ARE intelligent folk at the Lab, but not in charge of policy. LL's track record is evidence enough of that for me. SL should have been a huge success and money-spinner - but some REALLY bad policy moves have destroyed nearly all of its original promise. You have only to look at the month on month growth figures to see that. A lot of folk in the US economy made really poor decisions over the last few years, and that trend was followed in Europe and in other economies worldwide. So we have a depression. I'm not saying that LL are particularly stupid, but they aren't in the upper quartile of clever either.

@Hiker 1) You misunderstand the significant differences between Peeping Toms in RL and the same sort of activity in VR. There is established Legal precedent for liability of the observed, not the observer in situations such as those some SL residents will find themselves in. 2) I have a Real Life - it happens to be a damaged one, and VR, SL in particular has provided me with some measure of interaction and fulfilment simply not available to me in RL. If I could be bothered I'd be offended by your words. 3) It is LL and not residents who will cause a mass exodus from this particular VR. If you do not know why, read Nelson Linden's post about upcoming cost changes for the educators arriving on the main grid in a few week's time. We may be angry and a little paranoid; Linden Labs have finally convinced me that they have no conception of Real World Business.

@Terrence Linden Surely by now it is clear that a substantial number of users are opposed to this change, and a number of very relevant issues have been raised. Is it not time for Linden Lab to tell us: 1) that all, or at least some of, these issues have been taken into account in your plans or 2) That these are genuine, concrete issues that you need to address before merging the two grids. Linden Lab went ahead with the "Adult Content" changes in the face of considerable vocal and intelligent (for the most part) opposition for the very purpose of sanitising the Main Grid. Now this plan is revealed which will muddy the waters all over again. From your own point of view, this cannot be good for the safety of minors, which is (as far as I can see) one of the main points that your own Federal Authorities have been making re SL for several years now. Please tell us that you have these bases covered for all our sakes. Do not turn this move into yet another Linden Lab fiasco.

Taff Your comments on my post are way off the mark, and I find your initial statement idiotic and offensive. It is not children that I see as dangerous (though some may well be), it is the blind legislature that claims to take resposibility for them that I dislike and fear. Legislatures are elected bodies and as such pander to the whims of vocal and occasionally ignorant groups. That is one of the aspects of democracy. Provided that effective controls are put upon younsters coming into the main grid, so that they cannot, without breaking ToS, see or interact with "Adult or Mature" content or access Mature or Adult sims ( I KNOW Mature isn't called Mature any more) I am content to welcome them onto the Main Grid. Ciaran Laval made my point about who is, or is not, a legal Adult so I won't elaborate there. My prime concern is that Linden Lab, with their track record of failing to make changes work properly, will consequently expose children to the risk of predation, and adults to the risk of false accusation and labelling as paedophilic. I am also, as I stated concerned about predation on vulnerable adults by other adults, but that's a different matter. As a parting shot, I find it revealling that so far, we have not seen one comment from a Linden in the thread. Nice to know that LL is maintaining its policy of not getting involved in these "rants"!

OK Taff, you make a point that many probably have, namely that only a few folk have been motivated to post on this matter. Firstly, far far more than ten times the number who have posted are having serious misgivings about this policy. That is a characteristic of all democracies. Please do not be so ingenuous, it is insulting. Secondly, of course parents should supervise their children when they go online. The trouble is that 16 and 17 year olds may be children in the eyes of the law, but they are not children in their own or their parents' eyes. The state (be it the US Federal Authorities or other countries' Authorities) have a defined and well-established in loco parentis duty of care over minors. That being the case many parents will rely on the law to protect their minors. Thirdly, there is the matter of truthfulness. Who will believe whom? Fourthly and finally, if it were only minors at risk of predation I'd leave it to the authorities. It is not. There are vulnerable adults at risk from uncaring and conscienceless predators of all ages. This policy has not been considered with regard to safety of children or anyone else. It is simply a business decision - and a bad one withall.

SO WHY AM I BOTHERING? I wish I could say; "Oh no, Linden Lab aren't listening, how unusual!" I can't because they never do. Even with oblivion and ridicule facing them, the people at the Lab do not pay a blind bit of notice to our "rantings". It has always been this way...we aren't really "Customers", simply people who use this virtual location and pay for the privilege. LL have never given credence to their "users". To the bulk of them we are a necessary evil - an inconvenience. The Adult content Fiasco was just one example of LL staring incontravertible facts in the face and blithely ignoring them. Now we have thoughtful suggestions from sensible and concerned SL citizens, and they will be utterly ignored too. And yet...SL persists, mainly because we need it (well I can only speak truly for myself, but I know I do) and Linden Lab know this - that is the fuel for their flights of fancy and ignorance. Terrence is no better or worse than most, if not all Linden Lab employees. It is sad.

Hey, I have this really great idea. Why not give Teens their own Grid, so that we aren't bothered by having our privacy rudely breached by frankly sad teens. What...there IS a Teen Grid but it's too expensive to run...? Oh...durrrr. If LL cannot guarantee safety of minors on the Main Grid, what self-respecting educator is going to use it? All that this move will achieve is to allow some minors to get some cheap thrills. It will not stop the serious issue of predation on vulnerable adults by other adults. That is actually a far more serious and criminal behaviour that LL can do little to stop. Western society is sick, and SL is simply a reflection of that sickness. Just to put my attitude in place, let me say that many other societies on this planet are also sick, just in different ways.

Well, I feel I have to comment on this. I read what Shockwave wrote and to a large extent I agree with those words; also those of Deltango. This seems like a good stepping off point for SL and on the whole it is a sensible approach to reconciling educational needs with SL per se. But...There are those who will never be able to reconcile minors and SL. A net for minors? On whose premises and using whose laws? At this point I despair of the attitude of some apparent adults who flatly refuse to take responsibility for the behaviour of minors. That point is not merely an issue in SL it is a major issue in RL. For me, as an Adult who probably breaks the law of several countries connected to the net in RL, I fail to see a truly workable solution.