[[GUIDE] 10 tips to get the most out of web profiles!]

Scholarly (easy to read, "this isn't tinfoil hat craziness") article on what the Facebook and Twitter buttons do:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1717563

They're pretty aggressive little snoops, to say the least.   I don't usually get all upset about such things, but when it comes to my SL identity, I don't want ANY possible tie to my RL, tyvm.  You can block them with adblockplus or with noScripts (Firefox) or notScripts (Chrome).  noScripts/notScripts is pretty fun to have anyway, since you get to see just how much stuff is trying to track your every web move, although in the early going you'll keep wondering why all your favorite sites suddenly broke.   (You get to choose what scripts run, so by default you are safe --- what a thought!)

The Lab seems to be struggling to grasp the concept that a lot of us don't want this connected to Real Life.   Maybe if they changed the name to something like "Second" Life it would be .................oh, wait .......

[The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010]

Rene, Search is no longer a problem for anyone with viewer 2.5 and all the necessary alterations to the default settings that are needed to protect oneself against the web based profiles TwitFace snoopware, redZone, QuickWare Alts Pro, and goodness knows what other security invaders are creeping in through unpatched exploit holes and LL's new "features."    By the time you shut down media, music, voice, cookies and Javascript, neither profiles nor Search work.    So, problem solved!

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

Settle down, settle down. 

I finally get it. 

No decisions are being made here, there's nothing to worry about.  There's a new CEO and all the management are thrashing about attempting to look like they're doing something gosh awful important, that's all.  Notice ....this is the Marketing Department running this!   "Yes SIR, we've just opened a whole new Resident ....erm ...CUSTOMER Communication Initiative and are even now beginning to prepare to analyze their vital input and preparing to begin to get ready to move forward with a continued dialogue which we have every hope will produce an actionable agenda."  I've been the new boss several times, I've seen this show before.  It's relatively harmless.

All that Viewer2 stuff that culminated in the latest assault on privacy and laughable "Facebook Twit" stuff was in the pipeline LONG before Mr. Humble ever answered that fateful phone call, and it will take some time for him to shift things.   One key sign will be what he does or doesn't do with the alt detection scheme/media security exploits brouhaha.  Then we'll have a good indication of the real new direction.   Until he can get himself grounded and his staff assembled and grounded, don't expect huge changes, just signs.

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

http://s1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb329/CaseyPelous/?action=view&current=1939_SonFrankenstein.jpg

[Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived]

Issue #4 : I like the check box to make your profile NOT shown on the web AT ALL but stil shown in Second Life to either everyone, friends, etc.... however, I'm not sure if this Facebook widget thing still works or not or how they plan on implementing it from getting "Liked" even if someone else lets their information known.  Plus it seems as tho the settings don't stick?  I've clicked "Save" but I'm extremely weary on profiles even being shown on the internet.  I know that before they still were on SL.com's search, but nothing was linked to other websites such as Facebook.  Its nice they gave us the option to not have it searched, but honestly... JUST GET RID OF IT!!

Oh, no worries.   That Facebook Like button is working just fine, trying to send all sorts of your personal data home to Mark Zuckerberg and crew every time you load a profile -- even if you're not a Facebook member -- unless you've taken some serious steps to kick its teeth in.

Here's what it does and how it does it:  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1717563

And IM me inworld if you want a notecard on 10 steps to take to secure your personal data in SL.

[Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived]

1)  Default setting is Javascript and Cookies enabled, leaving users wide open to the Facebook and Twitter snoopware on the web based profiles.

2)  Media, Music and Voice default to on, leaving you wide open to having your IP address snagged by the IP snoopers out there.

3)  I hoped to use this long enough to change my profile privacy settings, but am getting some sort of Web Kit fail error and my Profile won't open.   How do I change those settings outside this viewer, please?

I'm getting really tired of having to fight so hard to maintain a shred of privacy and am losing interest.   If that's the desired effect, I guess you win.

 

If you changed the default setting of cookies from enabled to disabled, profiles won't work. Lovely, huh? Go to your profile in your browser to update it there. http://my.secondlife.com/casey.pelous

Thanks, Adam!   hahaha, wouldn't you know they'd set it up to bork Search if they couldn't snoop me.   Great.   Ah, well, Search didnt' work worth a damn, anyway.  Let's see ....now I have to effectively shut off Useless Search, Media, Music, Voice, Cookies, and my external browser if I don't want half the planet in my data shorts.   GAWWWWD!   The featurez on this viewer is so AWESOME dooood!  Wewt!

And, unchecking "Show My Profile On Web" then clicking Save results in an assurance that "settings saved" but guess what!    Muahahahahaaaaaa!    It's permanently checked.  Suckered again, Casey!

Wait .....I think I hear a Linden in my base killin' my doodz ........brb .......

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

Well ....we're about 250 posts into this thread plus several hundred more on the 2.5, New CEO and Q4 Economic Indicators threads.

Allow me to summarize, and tell me if I'm way off here:

1)  Fix the basic functions.   Search and Group Chat for starters.

2)  We like our privacy more than you thought.   We're getting cranky about IP Address sniffers exploiting your security hole to play the "alt matching" game, and we want a lot of choice about who sees what.

3)  Viewer 2?  Not as cool as you thought.   Rethink.  (Even if it was as cool as you think, it wouldn't be by the time we take all the steps we need to take to protect our personal data.)

4)  Marketplace's growth probably came at the expense of inworld stores.   Please investigate and determine if this is the best path to profitability for your company.

5)  Yes, yes, you're all smitten with Facebook and Twitter.   For a lot of us ...not so much.   And ....subtle hint?   It's called "Second" Life.   Lots of us want the choice to opt out of FB and Twitter stuff altogether, and that includes your little privacy invading widgets on the profiles, though we don't generally begrudge you trying to promote the place.

I think that's a pretty good five point bullet list that the vast majority of us who are savvy enough to be aware of these issues would agree on.   I can't think of anyone who would fight to NOT handle those things, with the possible exception of the guys who sell the IP Address snoopers and their customers ....but the customers would be mollified with some simple changes to your membership policies that have been detailed here and elsewhere and that would probably reduce the amount of content theft, if indeed it is at the epidemic levels they seem to think.

After all that's handled, I'd add:

6)  Reinvent from the ground up the new user experience so retention rates transform.

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm honestly baffled about what more communication you need from us to grasp that those are our hot issues.   However, if there is more you need to know, I am pretty sure we stand ready to answer your questions, though frankly, I'd rather be in world having fun.

[Viewer 2.5 with Web Profiles Has Arrived]

1)  Default setting is Javascript and Cookies enabled, leaving users wide open to the Facebook and Twitter snoopware on the web based profiles.

2)  Media, Music and Voice default to on, leaving you wide open to having your IP address snagged by the IP snoopers out there.

3)  I hoped to use this long enough to change my profile privacy settings, but am getting some sort of Web Kit fail error and my Profile won't open.   How do I change those settings outside this viewer, please?

I'm getting really tired of having to fight so hard to maintain a shred of privacy and am losing interest.   If that's the desired effect, I guess you win.

[Improving our Lines of Communication with the Community]

You needed ANOTHER channel of communication?

I'm dumbstruck.   Another channel of communication.   You didn't hear us the first 10,000 times?  Are you hoping for some different messages than the ones you've gotten over and over and over elsewhere?   Is this a case of "Didn't like Mom's answer, try Dad?"  Seems like it to me.   Or just window dressing.  It must be, because I have no problem whatsoever in finding out what your customers are saying to you without any need for a special channel.

Makes me wonder why I've bothered.   How profoundly discouraging.

[The Second Life Economy in Q4 2010]

how many big business concerns will say to themselves, lets do something in virtual worlds, and look at what they can do

and then they see you guys comments.. and dont do it..

Uh .........the day of "big business concerns" thinking anything profitable was going to happen here passed back in about 2008 ........and believe me, it had nothing to do with any comments in a blog.

every business in the world when they present their results don't focus on the negatives I am wondering if some of you supposed wonderful business guys are thick

I'd argue that LL is more like a government in that we are trying to make business plans within the SL economy, and have only their economic figures to plan from.   In most developed nations with progresseive governments, lots of such data is available.  Anyone who can read the TOS can see that SL is much more like a developing nation run by a capricious and secretive totalitarian government, complete with its own star court for "offenders."  Typical of such nations, "reality is available only on a need-to-know basis."  But that doesn't mean we have to kneel down and accept the little dribbles of sanitized numbers as "the best we can get, and thank you for that pittance."

I am sorry that your business is (apparently) not going well.   These are tough times -- RL and SL, and many of us are in the same boat with you.   I'm not without sympathy, believe me!   But your (our) business troubles are most likely rooted in how you (we) have adapted (or not) to the series of decisions "the government" has made, such as failing for years to solve basic functionality issues, taking a large chunk of commerce out of the world and onto the 2D web and failing to generate any sort of useful in-world search engine for commerce. 

I long ago gave up trying to find anything via in-world search beyond Groups and People.  (Sorry to say it, but that would include your business.)

I've about abandoned hope that group chat will ever function dependably. 

I've accepted that I will spend at least 15 minutes every single day answering, "Why am I a cloud?" only to have the new resident asking me finally give up in exasperation and poof, probably never to return. 

I've even learned to smile ruefully at the irony of a company trying to build a "social networking site" on an architecture that inherently functions worse and worse the more people you put in one place or in one group.

These days, I'm adapting to all the haxorage I have to do to attain some level of privacy for my personal data, such as switching off media, music, and voice, blanking my profile, hiding all my groups, unchecking Show In Search, blocking all the snoopware on the new web based profiles by editing my hosts file, wearing a useful but singularly unattractive HUD to alert me to IP address thieves, etc., etc., etc.   Then there's all the additional effort of keeping up with developments in all the viewers, which feels like even MORE haxorage.  The whole thing is one giant workaround!

What I have not yet given up is my dream of what this interconnected, 3D world without borders can be.  And, perhaps I'm foolish -- or as you say, "thick" -- but I've not given up participating in creating that vision.

And you think we are the problem?  I respectfully disagree.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Here's a mockup of the upcoming Privacy Settings section we're going to release on my.secondlife.com:

http://cl.ly/1Q0J0l1v0e1r3Q0z1323

This is based on customer feedback and should address most privacy concerns people are having. This is a good time to come with feedback if you have concerns or suggestions on this approach. Unchecking the "I want my profile to be available on the web." option will hide the profile completely from the web.

erm ...........................

In the immortal words of the great philosopher Regis Philbin .......

"Is that your final answer?????????"

'cause if so ................1) Lamesauce.   2) Grow a pair.   3) Facebook ..........Twitter ....................what?   Those doofuses in the big offices actually think those things will make a difference?   omg ............okay, okay, we get it, they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer ........look, they're probably short-timers, anyway, okay?   Take heart!  I mean ...........come on!   It isn't like they're producing awesome results.  It isn't like they're producing anything beyond random results .....

Be strong, Fredrik.  The beauty of capitalism lies in its mercilessness.   They too shall pass.   So here's your strategy:   "Dude!/Dudesse!  Your strategy is soooooo awesome, NO ONE will opt out!   We can throw the fools a bone, and YOU will be a hero/heroine!"

Then, just let the 14 or so of us who give a crap opt out of those silly Facebook/Twitter things, okay?  Trust me, after fighting this fight for two weeks, I can assure you the rest of these rubes don't care.  They think we're paranoid idiots who don't understand the interwebs, and they won't opt out of this ...........um .................brilliant (?) ................strategy (?) ................. *double facepalm*....and you will have Saved The Company.   You look good, Suit looks good, all is Happy Happy Joy Joy.

We never had this conversation ........

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

IBM expects you to use SL.  To the point where IBM Beaverton is nearly vacant on any given day because everyone's telecommuting via SL.  There's plenty of RL companies in SL.  My employer knows I'm in SL and knew that prior to hiring me.  Canadian Customs does their training in SL.

Bummer for me that neither IBM nor Canadian Customs find themselves among the people I work for or might be likely to work for in the future.   Among my clients, Second Life is known -- to the extent it is known at all -- as something rather alarmingly sleazy.  Among my tech friends in the software biz, Linden Lab is not well regarded.   Sort of "last decade's failsauce."   You know how those computer people are -- so judgmental.  Glad your employer is a bit more forgiving or even supportive.   Not all of us are so fortunate.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Mistral, we have researched and documented the privacy invading aspects of this plan at extraordinary length and detail in this thread,  I can assure you that several of the contributors here are experienced, worldly professionals with deep experience in databases, data mining, and digital security.  The fact that we have been exposed by Linden Lab to the hazards of the web profiles and widgets for years is cause, to us, not for reassurance, but for considerable alarm and increased mistrust.

However, no one is asking that Mistral's right to share whatever you want to share with Facebook be curtailed.   No one is trying to take anything away from you.  We're trying to increase choice, not decrease it.

All we have asked is the simple common courtesy of the option to not be included.   Many of us have different viewpoints about privacy than you -- frankly, yours is a rather simplistic view, but you are entitled to it.  And who knows, you may be right.   But, considerable credible evidence, much of it detailed in this thread, suggests you are not.   And that's why a good number of us are asking that we have the option of being left out of this scheme without having to exercise the "just leave" course of action.  We don't want our data mined.  Period.  We don't have to justify it and frankly, we don't want to have to resort to measures like switching off voice, media and music, editing our hosts files, logging in through proxies and installing adblockplus extensions to fight back.

I'm not joking around about leaving ... I already have a bunch of stuff packed up and have been transferring it to another grid.   (I even have a box of stuff to leave behind for the inevitable "can I haz your stuffz?")  But I don't want to leave.  I have a huge vision for what's possible through this technology.   As I'm sure you do, I not only have "my stuffz", I have many, many friends from all over the world in Second Life and it is truly painful to contemplate leaving, but I will not endanger my future to be here, and it is my considered opinion backed up by hours and hours of research and conversation that without adequate privacy controls that is what I am doing.  I'm in a brief "wait and see, cautious optimism" period.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

Dang it, Arabello!   How many times do we have to explain?   It isn't a BUG, , it isn't an ISSUE, it's a FEATURE!   SHEESH!

*rummages in inventory for "not bug/feature t-shirt" to send to Mike so he can focus.*

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

does microsoft do what their customers tell them?
it's LL's product and they make it look like they want to, then you "buy" it or you don't.

You're not from around here are ya.   If you were, you'd know the Microsoft user testing operation is enormous, continuous, and directly impacts the next day's work the programmers are doing.  

i like the facebook thing. always thought SL itself should be more like a facebook 3d.

No one I know of wants to take away your "facebook thing".   We just asked for the right to opt out of it.   You share all you want with Mr. Zuckerberg, I'm sure he'll remember you in his will or something.

i guess LL can afford to lose a few constant forum whiners while making their product more appealing to casual users. although the complainers just keep complaining without leaving.

If there was one shred of evidence that viewer 2 has improved retention rates, I think we'd all line up to support it so long as we didn't have to deal with that "Linden egos run amok" horror that thinks it is actually more important than the experience of the virtual world.   However, the latest Q4 economic figures suggest retention has remained dismal or even declined.  But again, no one is trying to take your viewer away from you.   And, again, all we are asking is choice.

So what was your valid complaint again?   Oh, yeah.

now i need a new idea again, hahaha.

I'd agree, but I'm a little unclear on one thing.  Real slow like, with small words and none of that newfangled "leets" stuff you kids these days go on about .....'cause I'm kinda old, I'm not too bright, I'm not too educated, and I'm kinda new at all this here computerin' and interwebs stuff ......help me understand how that's the problem of us "forum whiners" who are trying to expand everybody's choices and, hopefully, save the future of this virtual world.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

Thanks. I will keep the alt around, I kinda dig presocratics

 

You had me at "presocratics."     (And to think I actually edited out a reference to how odd it was that a "Parmenides", who argued against the possibility of change, was announcing a change.  "Too nerdy even for this clubhouse!"  Wrong, Casey!)

 

THIS is what will have SL thrive.  Not force and buttons -- Choice and Communication.   We're a very savvy bunch.   We don't need a "Like" button -- with all its risk, overhead, and pushback -- to share this with people.   When we're inspired, we're infinitely more clever and persuasive than some dorky automated "Like" could ever be.   We've never lacked the tools.   We've lacked something worth sharing.  (So let's lighten "the poor guy's" load and just have him delete two useless blocks of code out of the profile page and get on to other matters.)

Yesterday I was literally packing my prims to move out.   Today, I can imagine someday recommending SL again.  Put me down as "cautiously optimistic."

Thanks in advance for forward progress on those other two issues.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

!!

*sotto voce:  Holy crap!  It's the BOSS!   EEP!*

 

You'd think a new guy had taken over or something ........... 

Thank you for listening to us.   You can probably tell, I had lost hope for progress on this.

As to the proposed controls --- heck of a start.   Couple of more little things to tweak, and you'll get my thumbs up.

The amount of emotion I"ve expended on this in the past week is probably silly, but because I have traveled constantly for many years, Second Life -- this place I can always get to, these friends I can always be with -- is quite the source of joy and companionship as well as a creative outlet.   (You may have noticed, they frown on taking your sewing room, wood shop, metal shop, painting studio, construction site and mad scientist's laboratory with you in your carry on ....)

So thanks again .....and let's keep moving forward.

 

ETA:  uhhhhh ................. I swear, Parmenides wrote to me.   Now his post is just "nm" .............

Did I develop a hideous case of Premature Celebration?

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Oh, Fredrik! 

Well done.  I must say I'm dumbfounded.   Thank you so much for this ....as far as it goes.

Now just add the part where I don't show up on the web at all ...not even my name, please.

I'd also like the option to switch off those silly Facebook and Twitter buttons on my own profile just so I don't need to waste the top of my profile space with a stern warning not to use them and a description of their true function plus instructions on how to protect oneself against their snoopiness and a warning about outing themselves on Facebook/Twitter...that's kind of a buzz kill on first meeting, don't you think?  And then there's the full perms notecard I'd be passing out to anyone I met with that same text so they could copy and paste it.  It's ....esthetically displeasing.

Thank you again for listening to us.   I've no doubt this much required some significant shifts in some strategies and am well acquainted with what that entails even in a relatively small organization such as yours.   Now, please go those last few yards to victory.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

There's nothing a pickpocket loves more than a crowd of rubes who "can't see what the problem is."

Any number of intelligent, knowledgeable people have laid out exactly what the problems are in detail.   I myself have spent hours and hours researching these, and spoken personally with some very smart computer professionals, and these concerns that have been expressed are quite legitimate.

And all we have asked is the option to opt out (or better and more sensible, to make giving up privacy an  opt-in).   Some choices about what people can see and where they can see it.   Even Facebook, the most aggressive privacy invader on earth offers that.  If you want your profile up in lights in the sky with fireworks and the Goodyear blimp flashing your Social Security number and bank routing information, knock yourself out!  No one has tried to deny you the privilege. Some of us don't.  AND we were told in https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-3494?

"Fredrik Linden added a comment - 25/Jan/11 2:42 PM - edited
We just deployed a new version that removes the Share This widget for profiles that have the "Show me in search" option checked.

We are working on a complete overhaul of the privacy settings that will allow users to have more control over their privacy."

Instead, the 1st Life/Real World/Real Life profile information was put BACK up on the web without the slightest notice.   If that isn't a clear enough message about how LL regards us, I don't know what is.

There's an old saying.   If you look around the table and you can't see who the sucker is, you're it.

Don't bother replying and helping me understand, Mr. Moleno.  I have wasted enough time on this, and I really don't need any more of your sarcastic condescension.  I'm done.

[Getting Immersed in Second Life]

Well, good luck with it.   I'd stick around to see how you do, but my trust is shattered.  The last straw for me was yesterday when your company put people's Real Life/1st Life/Real World profile information (your own people can't seem to keep the ever-shifting terminology straight) back up on the web after saying they'd switched it off -- and didn't even whisper a word about it.

While you've been figuring out where to put the stapler, I've been saying goodbye to friends from all over the Earth that I've met here in my four years.   While you've been having meetings, I've been backing up my inventory for a move elsewhere.

I keep scrambling in my mind for some reason not to go, but I do hold a belief that "we become what we tolerate" and there's really not much of anything about your company that I want to become any more.

I'll be watching from a distance, hoping that you inject some integrity and consciousness into Linden Lab.   It seems sorely needed.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

The Real Life section is indeed back, and fully exposed.

 

Wow.

Seriously, wow.  And without so much as a "heads up."

On January 20th I asked "Is there NO end to the arrogance of this company?"

I just got my answer, I guess.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

On https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-3494 .....

"Yoz Linden added a comment - 20/Jan/11 12:44 AM

As you may have noticed, the Real Life section has been removed from publicly-visible web profiles for the moment, so as to bring the new web profiles in line with the old ones. We don't know if or when they'll be back, but we would like to offer residents more control over the visibility of individual profile sections in the future; if this comes about (the likelihood and timing is not certain) then the Real Life section would be part of that."

I was just looking at a friend's web profile ...she was busily implementing the "uncheck Show In Search" and other security measures ....and I read all her Real World section.   Oddly, she was not able to see it.   The "uncheck Show In Search" was in effect as we both had to log in to my.secondlife.com to see it.   Both of us were inworld at the time.

Anyone care to check a few more and let us know if LL has switched the Real World section back on?  Am I just confused?  Do they think that a "publicly-visible web profile" does NOT include all profiles that can "only" be viewed with an SL user name that takes five minutes to acquire for free?   Would they actually switch off Real Life for those who are still "Show In Search Positive" and leave it on for those trying to opt out?  Or was this just some weird glitch?  (It's a couple of hours later now, and I'm still able to read it ......)

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

No data farmer with any amount of legitimacy whatsoever would do that.

What about the ones without any amount of legitimacy?  Do you have any idea how many programmers are out of work in the USA?

Doesn't matter, though.   I'm getting ready to opt out in the only way LL has left me.  Been packing up stuff all day off and on.

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

ahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa..................................WOW, that Facebook sure is secure!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/26/zuckerberg_facebook_hack/

[Viewer 2.5 Beta Now Available]

Last night when I checked your profile I wasn't logged in to SL nor to secondlife.com.   This morning I need to log in to secondlife.com to see your profile ....maybe I hit it just at the moment you were twiddling with settings or something?  (Or maybe my browser still had a "log on cookie" .... but I was reading the e-mail copy of your post, wasn't reading it here.)

In any case, the "you have to be logged in to see this" affords about as much protection as a toilet paper hat in a rainstorm since pretty much anyone with an e-mail address can get an SL user name and password.   It doesn't even require a log in for each profile you want to see ....log in once, spider at will!  Google won't do that, but if I was a marginally legitimate (or worse) data farmer, I sure would.