Gavin Hird

Maybe the "meet your friends at Facebook" tactics are starting to produce results? :smileyhappy: ... why would you buy anything in-world or in the market place if you gonna spend your time on FB. / sarc off Seriously, I don't get the business logic behind driving in-world shopping to a 2D website. it is bound to have consequences for tier paid by merchants to LL and I doubt commission on SLM can make up for the loss.

Ah! Brilliant! Since there is a XSTREETSL category where the magic box is, and there were no signs there, I assumed they never had been moved over. Perhaps some Linden person could consolidate these resources to the same location?

Rene Erlanger wrote: There are Marketplace signs (sold or given freely on MP) that can be placed in in-world stores...a click will take you straight to the Marketplace Store. I have those in most of my in-world shops.....it's particularly useful for gifting, if one doesn't have that facility set up in-world. Could you provide a link for this. I have the old xstreet signs, but I have not found any new with updated logos on.... Thanks,

First call to boosting sales is having a search that returns sensible results. Try search for something simple as white male skin for General only and see what gets returned. You have all kinds of clutter. For trivial searches like this, the shopper is most likely to just hop on whatever comes up on page 1 or 2 given all the, most likely, irrelevant listing that seems following that, while there are indeed results exactly matching the query following interspersed on the next 17 pages.

Jade Angkarn wrote: My internet connection speed is fast, my system is not bogged down by other applications... so WHY does it take so long to load??? Most likely because the elements of the profile is loaded from 7-8 different URLs involving multiple servers including Amazon cloud storage. The old profiles some times took a bit to load the images, but the rest of the info was close to instantaneous. Now it must load backgrounds, javascript, css and other "goodies" to start displaying a profile. I support web based technology used for the profiles, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired....

Cato Badger wrote: Wouldn't such a regime encourage the proliferation of alts (and thus increase confusion) by those who felt they had legitimate reasons to raise issues in multiple threads without any interest in acquiring rank? Then you could just apply the Red Zone logic to the forums too, hehe. I'd support throttling of thread creation by account over a sensible period of time. Not sure if a granularity of hours might be required, but I suppose some analysis of spammer behavior could generate a sensible starting point.

To use the theme in Safari (tested on Mac), you do the following. Open the Safari Extensions Gallery from the Safari menu and install the extension "User CSS 1.3.1" Open Preferences and the Extensions icon and Enable "User CSS 1.3.1" Close Preferences You will now have an A to the left of the + in the address bar. Press it and Safari will open "User CSS" in a new tab Click "New User CSS and fill in the form as follows: Fill in a name i.e. "SL Community site" In the Domain Includes fill in: http://community.secondlife.com/* Paste in the Code from the Chrome install in the original link provided by the first post Remove the 2nd line containing the code "@-moz-document domain("community.secondlife.com") {" Remove the last line containing the code "}" 6. Click Save and then Enable If all went right, you will now see the style applied to the forums.

Well, first of all I think it would be better if we discussed Marketing and Advertising Practices overall, rather than sub-optimize for the marketplace or in-world as if they were separate entities. Actually, this should be stamped in the forehead of any Linden working with marketing "How can we increase overall revenue in SecondLife as a whole, and for all content creators"? ...and in all your marketing tactics you must create a desire for customers to be in-world and not spend time on a 2D site. Admittedly I have swapped in-world time with laying on the couch with the iPad browsing the marketplace and reading forums. But, hey, I can do that pretty much anywhere and I often end up buying some other digital content in the App Store rather than spend any dollars in the marketplace. The combination of a crippled classified, search not working smoothly (if at all) and removal of camping has not been very good at all. I never used camping, but camping worked as the water cooler – at least for new residents, and it gave them an incentive to stay and earn, but also yearn for more when they realized the camping Lindens would not get them very far. I am not sure what is the idea with shrinking classifieds down to almost useless (as others have pointed out), but for viewer 2.51 it does not even load my classified logo image in the web based profiles however much I change it. My own experience with the changes in search is that pre November I had 1-4 in-world sales daily. Now it is down to 1 per week if I am lucky. Perhaps my product is dated, price too high, competition has gotten better etc etc, but people don't even head over to browse like they used to before they have seen the price and product. The marketplace has perhaps picked up 15% of what I lost in-world. The result? I tiered down half a sim. So the loss is on Linden Lab at the end of the day. What I would like to see is an integration of the search in-world and market place. We used to be able to see line-items for sale on parcels in in-world search including price and location that could be teleported to. I would like to have a federated search that had all items for sale displayed, and where you could display item details and purchase the product directly from search, alternatively teleport to the point of sale to browse and purchase in-world. This would promote customers (residents) staying in-world, while at the same time give merchants a more effective marketing tool eliminating all the duplicated and dispersed effort SL marketing has evolved to be.

Asha Eerie wrote: Does anyone find listing enhancements useful? I have tried a couple of times, and I only get click-throughs the first day. Thereafter complete silence despite lots of impressions. Not sure what is going on...

UltraEdit seems to do a decent job and it runs on both Mac, Linux and Windows. The syntax highlighting definitions are kept up to date with the latest revision from the end of January. BBEdit is a good editor too for the Mac, but the syntax highlighting is a bit dated. Having said that, external editors is not implemented properly on Mac OS X. It does not behave as per the Apple UIG. If i.e. the external editor is set to /Applications/UltraEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/UltraEdit %s it invokes an instance of UltraEdit and opens the file, as expected. However, if UltraEdit is already running, as per Apple's UIG, the file shall be opened in a new window in the running application. This is not happening, but it invokes another instance of UltraEdit. This is typical Windows behavior and is never seen on Mac OS X (as in it shall not happen even though it technically can.) It is one of the major differences of Mac OS X and Windows in expected application behavior. Also, when the file is opened, expected behavior is to switch to the application opening the file and make the window containing it the frontmost. This does not happen, but is hidden behind the SL viewer, so you have to manually invoke a switch. For BBedit, editing a file just starts the application if not running, but never opens the file. Rather than specify the path to an executable inside the .app directory (which content is hidden for normal users) the only thing you need to do on Mac OS X is to pass the temp file with the extension .lsl to the operating system (Finder) and it will be opened for edit in the default application set to handle files of that type. If no application has been set, the OS will suggest a list of candidates that can handle the file. Doing it this way will prevent invocation of additional instances of an application. Changing the default application for a file type is easy to set in the Finder. So you could only have the externalEditor debug setting accept the values True or False on the Mac, and if True, pass the file for edit to the Finder and it would be opened for edit in the users's favorite editor.

Yoz Linden wrote: Curious Hazelnut wrote: 2) The editor built into viewer 2 still doesn't line up the cursor with the text you are editing properly on large files. This is very common for scripts and when writing instructions for new products. It is a huge problem when trying to edit what has already been written. This sounds like a nasty bug in our editor - do you know of a JIRA issue for it? In the meantime, there are some useful workarounds. As Hitomi said, you can now use external text editors to edit LSL scripts. If you have the "Advanced" menu enabled, hit "Show Debug Settings" then set the externalEditor setting to a command line for invoking your editor application of choice - for example, here's a command line for a non-existent Windows editor: C:\Program Files\JoannaLumleyEdit\joanna.exe "%s" (Note the "%s" at the end, in which the temporary script file is passed to the editor.) Now, when you open a script to edit, the viewer's editor window will have a new Edit button at the bottom. Clicking this button will download the script to a local temporary file and open your chosen external editor app. Every time this file is saved by your editor, the Viewer will notice and put the results back in the viewer's editor. I hope this solution makes things easier! Actually this is not implemented properly on Mac OS X. It does not behave as per the UIG. If i.e. the external editor is set to /Applications/UltraEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/UltraEdit %s it invokes an instance of UltraEdit and opens the file, as expected. However, if UltraEdit is already running, as per Apple's UIG, the file shall be opened in a new window in the running application. This is not happening, but it invokes another instance of UltraEdit. This is typical Windows behavior and is never seen on Mac OS X. it is one of the major differences of Mac OS X and Windows in expected application behavior. Also, when the file is opened, expected behavior is to switch to the application opening the file and make the window containing it the frontmost. This does not happen, but is hidden behind the SL viewer, so you have to manually invoke a switch. For BBedit, another common editor on the Mac, editing a file just starts the application if not running, but never opens the file. You really need to test this better. EDIT: Actually, the only thing you need to do on Mac OS X is to pass the temp file with the extension .lsl to the operating system (Finder) and it will be opened for edit in the default application set to handle files of that type. If no application has been set, the OS will suggest a list of candidates that can handle the file. Doing it this way will prevent invocation of additional instances of an application. Changing the default application for a file type is easy to set in the Finder.

I discovered this by chance, but it seems like the community platform requires Adobe Flash to be installed for core functionality like file uploads. I got an error message in Safari not understanding why, whereas it worked fine in Firefox. The connection became clear when I tried the same operation on the iPad, where it displayed a message I had to install flash to upload images. For Safari I had installed the Click to Flash extension, which is a flash blocker, and as soon as it was disabled, image uploads worked in Safari too. I mean, seriously??! Flash - the security hole infested ... If Flash is central to the operation of the platform, i guess that leaves out a massive amounts of mobile devices from taking full advantage of it, in addition to us who does not want that crap to running on our systems. EDIT: Click to Flash has a whitelist, and if community.secondlife.com is whitelisted, functionality as expected is restored.

Aha! I tried uploading an image from the iPad, and voila; the root of the issue. "You must install or upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash Player before you can upload images...." Seriously?!! You have created a community platform with FLASH at the core of the functionality? The security hole infested .... ... and that should leave out quite a few mobile devices too. The diagnosis for Safari on the Mac was simple once I realized flash was involved. The Safari extention "Click to Flash" would of course block the operation - which it did. Disabling it restored the upload function like in Firefox.

Image uploads fails with Safari on Mac OS X 10.6.6, with an error message. The same upload works in Firefox 4.0b9. Since Safari is the default browser on the Mac and iOS devices, this should be fixed ASAP. Oh... and if I press Preview, I get a warning that leaving the page will loose all unsaved changes, so does that mean preview will kill your message? :-)

What about all those who pay a membership fee? are they not direct customers? Sorry, the premium account holders that does not own any land are included in the 85k customers. This is where the bulk of LL's income comes from.

I downgraded to a free account a few years ago and see no reason to go back to premium because unless the outright lying stops and improvements are made, SL will simply go away. ... So if/when it becomes standard, you will have lost yet another CUSTOMER. P.S. WE are not "residents" we are PAYING CUSTOMERS. So which is it? A free account or a paying customer? LL only has about 85k direct customers; the land owners (estate and mainland). This group is fairly small compared to the overall (regular) user base.

Gavin, I know for sure it would make some people very angry if I pointed out that some of what is being created and sold in Second Life probably drives away other types of potential business. If that is the case, it might sense to ease out business that has limited or maxed out value to make way for other business that is believed to have greater value. I'm willing to wait and see how it goes. Yes, there is content in SL that keeps other people out, but that will swing both ways. Lack of said content will keep others out. Besides there are ways of handling separation of content much more intelligent than what is currently done. You also need to realize that these content providers you don't like are the ones who have pushed for more advanced animations, better looking avatars, skins and clothes, and more advanced vendor systems, reliable delivery and marketing. We see exactly the same on the internet at large. Without these folks, SL would be a much more boring and bland environment. As I said in the 4Q economy thread, Linden Lab's long term business objective is to open up the grid for a wide, family oriented audience. This will drive some people away, clearly. There are many folks, however, waiting it out. There is nothing in this process that gives you any particular right to tell others to pack up and leave. At the end of the day, you might as well be the one felling the heat and leave.

Cherry, it's great that you are making money in SL, but that isn't part of the service Linden Lab is offering. It isn't their responsibility to support your business. They have made no promise to do that and have no obligation to do it no matter how much you have paid them in the past. It may not be in the service Linden lab is offering, but it seems to have completely escaped you that unless people like him – people who make and provide content and create experience, or help debug and build software for free, Linden Lab and SecondLife would simply not exist. Linden Lab does not make any content and experiences. They don't own any content but a few Library provided items. They only provide a managed server infrastructure and a base platform consisting of the sim server and a viewer. The marketing they provide is rudimentary and not very targeted. So what you do is telling the content providers, people who have collectively, invested tens of millions of dollars to leave if they are not being sufficiently supported to sustain their business. In the same breath you also call the death of Linden Lab and SecondLife, because without these people Linden Lab's business is not sustainable. Since you seem to be so hung up on prices of sims, my recommendation is you download a free version of the server tools and build your own world for free ;-)

Facebook Connect might be a good guess. So you can log on with your FB identity. Hence the need for changes to login names. You cannot register in Facebook with a false identity. The name of our SL accounts it is not a "real" identity. That is just a matter of policy. I am sure the software can handle it technically.

There's something sinister about all these Facebook promos from Linden Lab, one wonders what the next Facebook link will be, Facebook comments on the new forums perhaps? The new forum software is under NDA so we'll have to wait and see. Facebook Connect might be a good guess. So you can log on with your FB identity. Hence the need for changes to login names. Just my 2 cents.

LL have to go with the persective that best works for them as a profit making company. I think we all need to remember that LL is a profit making company and profits are always going to come first when it comes to the crunch. This is where your logic fails. Linden Lab's business model is built on selling land (leasing server time) to content creators who can sell their goods and services to people who find the offering compelling enough to spend their time and cash in SecondLife. Unless LL supports said content creators and the businesses leasing server time sufficiently for those two groups to be successful, LL's business model falls flat on its face. Viewer 2, changes in search, SL Marketplace and to a some extent Zindra, even the teen grid merger and removal of camping throws spanners in the road for these two groups. This is what the contention is all about at the core of it.

We absolutely understand there are many stakeholders and considerations around the product decisions, which is why I asked if it was possible for you to publish RACI*-charts for your various products. Then at least we have a base for who should heard and participate in the discussion, and which to build a common understanding on. *RACI = Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed Most of the contention over the viewer, which I understand is your product, stems from the user interface which only to a very little degree satisfies the requirements of one of the biggest stakeholders in SecondLife; the content creators. It also makes it harder to operate land and estate businesses, which must be one of your other big stakeholder and largest source of income. Without the support of those two groups, LInden Lab's current business model is not sustainable. Changes in search and the marketplace are also hitting these two groups of stakeholders unproportionally hard, which has been another source of contention. The viewer also a user interface that is not extensible, and has therefore, in my opinion, failed already at the design phase, which is why I would recommend you stop putting effort into viewer 2, freeze it in a stable state, and divert your effort to viewer 3 where the UI is separated from the core engine.

There seems to be various reports of the speed of which the profiles load. Some say fast, others say slow. I have made a breakdown of where the bits and pieces of my profile are loaded from. 11.2 kB from https://my.secondlife.com/widgets/ 86.8 kB from https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js 192 kB from https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.6/jquery-ui.min.js https://api.mixpanel.com/site_media/js/api/mixpanel.js 81.8 kB from https://d1979ns0fqtj19.cloudfront.net/assets/common-*.css 126.9 kB from https://d1979ns0fqtj19.cloudfront.net/images/backgrounds/body*.png 24.3 kB from https://d2mjw3k7q9u8rb.cloudfront.net/assets/common-*.js 241 kB from https://my-secondlife.s3.amazonaws.com/users/gavin.hird/sl_image.png?1297372081 18.9 kB from https://my-secondlife.s3.amazonaws.com/users/gavin.hird/thumb_sl_image.png?1297372081 29.6 kB from https://my.secondlife.com/gavin.hird 33,9 kN from https://secondlife.com/app/image/ A total of 846.5 kB of which only 72 kB come from LL servers (or their domain.) We see the bulk comes from amazon servers (cloudfront.net is a front-end to those) in addition to a sizable block from googleapis.com I wonder if we see different load times simply because the bits from amazon is not geo-cached, so it is served up to users in Europe and outside the US via a sub-optimal and slow network path. We have seen the same in iTunes where content is cached in Akamai servers around the globe. If Akamai thinks you are in the US, the content will be served from a US server and is very slow to load here in Europe. So the question is, does the viewer kick off the requests for the profile load in such a way it seems like it originates in the US and therefore all content is served from there, rather from a cache location close to the receiver?

Starting from friends list, I (on a Mac) right click on a friend and select profile. 1) It takes too long to load the profile. As somebody said above, it should be as fast as loading any ordinary web page. 2) The window opens with my friend's URL but then switches to my URL and loads my profile. #DEFECT! I see the same defect as your #2. Loading a profile first time typically takes 14 seconds and somewhat faster on subsequent loads. On my MBP with screen resolution set to 1440 x 900 the profile window covers about 55% of the screen area, that is way too big. With webkit in the viewer, they could have made a html based widget (floater) that was much less intrusive and consistent with the rest of the interface. I see the advantage of using html for these functions particularly at the backend (I have suggested it many times in the blogs), but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. The advantage is of course it can be fixed without updating the viewer. Agreed on the aspect ratio. People will have to update large amounts of profile images at L$10 a pop ;-)

No error message, i can see the writing, but no pictures :-(. Sucks, lmao Sounds like you are running Vista. Might have to add my.secondlife.com as a trusted site.