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MB Robonaught

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Everything posted by MB Robonaught

  1. From what I’ve experienced and have been told by people in charge is that the process is done through automation. As there are thousands and thousands of items on the MP it would be impossible for a human to keep track of them all. The process works as the program randomly picks a seller then uses a keyword search to determine which category the item should be placed in. For example, a friend of mine created figurines of small woodland animals and one of those animals was a beaver. Through the programs search algorithms, which tend to lean to the X-rated side, it pulled the animal object and demanded it is listed as an adult item only. As Linden lab is unwilling to address the issue the only option is to keep close watch on keywords that can be interpreted in more than one way.
  2. Perrie Juran wrote: During my early days in SL someone told me that it was psychological research in mind control that they were doing and that I should be very afraid and concerned that I was being used as a guinea pig. Market research is psychological research in mind control where you see on tv that a lizard has got a car he was driving stuck in a tree so you buy thier car insurance Oh btw Perrie check out http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2007/june-july-07/get-a-second-life.html for a very interesting read on what you said:)
  3. I did not equate it to a financial transaction. A database transactions are a sequence of steps performed on a data base. Second Life is a database based operation so only definitions that apply to databases are correct unless you think a stock car drives into big hole when they pull in the pits. Please let's get back on topic I posted. Linden Lab blew the marketing of Sansar period.
  4. Phil Deakins wrote: I suspect that English isn't MB's first language and he's confusing the word 'concurrency' with 'currency'. Concurrency is the ability of a database to allow multiple users to affect multiple transactions. This is one of the main properties that separates a database from other forms of data storage like spreadsheets. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/27385/concurrency-databases guess again, I manage databases every day to create data such as that. It boggles my mind that nobody replied to the topic of my post on the very poor marketing techniques by Linden Labs.
  5. Thanks for the heads up on that but please forgive if I'm ignorant on saying isn't that just a graph of the median number of transactions through the database and not the number of people online? I also never said that there was a sudden drop of people leaving SL but a decline over the 2 years.
  6. As far as I can see that survey only goes back 60 days and not the almost two years needed to view the change. The survey only registers logins and does not reflect the number of users online at any given moment. I base my info from being a succesful SL business person since 2008 that watches the online count very close to dictate when the best oportunities for sales occur. The other night there were less than 30,000 online which is a far cry from before. Also try looking at the entire point of my post.
  7. Compare the numbers online from before the annoucement and recently. Read the posts in this thread of all those that claimed that Second Life was doomed by the imminent release of Sansar and that drop in numbers is quite obvious.
  8. I don’t know what Linden Lab is up to but this has to be one of the top ten examples of how NOT to do marketing. It is one thing to announce a possible future direction the company may decide to go in and it is quite another to announce that a project will be finished soon. For one thing, any major business will not announce a new product is in the works until that product has already been completed and only minor tweaking is still required. After two years it is obvious that this is not the case for Sansar. Secondly, the entire concept of announcing a new product is to generate positive interest in that product. I don’t know whose bright idea it was to announce Sansar then go silent on what it really means but they need to be replaced with someone trained in marketing. Instead, Linden Lab has decided to leave any of their loyal customers to rely on conjecture and speculation that has run rampant and causing many of those loyal customers to leave. The smart thing to do is to start damage control and explain exactly what Sansar is and what is it current state of development. If Linden Lab ever expects to make money off Sansar, or Second Life for that matter, they need to start to generate excitement in the project officially instead of thinking that leaving it to us armchair product development team members to take wild guesses at. To bad they'll never bother to read this.
  9. Let me clairify my question: The selections to report a copybotter/theft have been removed from the file abuse window and search yields no results for filing a DCMA. Does this mean copybotting is now allowed? Alwin, I AM the direct victim of a copybotter. I found a car motor I spent over 12 hours a day on in Blender to create. This copied motor is identical to mine, not only including the same colors on the faces but even the small errors I made setting the faces and in setting the vertices. So my “bad mod” is with reason. With Linden lab removing the option to report a copybotter in the report abuse window and removing/moving the links that I would have never found again but for Rolig Loon’s post, it sends a clear message that Linden Lab does not want to deal with this issue. It is obvious that one must follow proper procedures in this matter, however, one must first know where the procedure information is. If I, as someone that has been a creator in Second Life for 7 years, am having trouble reporting a theft imagine how many new creators that keep the Second life economy going are going to quit like I may.
  10. I'd like to know two things as a creator. One, why isn't there any information for us creators, as real businesses, to prepare for prior to release such as specific building criteria and scripting limitations? Two, if it is going to be like YouTube will we all be slammed by popup ads every few seconds like on YouTube?
  11. In a perfect logical world it would be like I said. However given what is actually going on I agree with everything you said. As far as LL listening, it may be easier to find out if the NSA is listening. Sure at the start of this thread there were responses back to questions, but that quickly faded as the panic set in and took over the thread plus the off topic posts. I would love for them to respond to this post to prove me wrong that they quit listening. You’d think there would be a team that were regular users of SL to understand what, we as their customers, want. I’ve never seen any evidence of that in the years I’ve been in SL. Upper management at LL are, in any typical business, are business persons and their only goal is the business. They rely on reports to make decisions and seldom get involved personally with product. I agree 100% with what you are saying, but there are two possibilities that may be occurring. One, upper management doesn’t care and base decisions on what they think will be profitable. Or two, those under them, who also don’t have SL experience, gives them bad information. Or both. By far one of the biggest issues in my opinion is the changing of leadership that has been going on the past few years. There have been three CEO’s in the last 7 years or so, and each came in claiming they would take SL in a new direction. Those changes in direction make for a horrid business model where linear growth is impossible. Who knows, with the next change in leadership due soon we may see SL 2.0 dropped or we may see this SL dropped. In all fairness I can’t condemn nor agree with LL’s business practices as I don’t have enough real information to pass judgment. However, as a user and someone that runs a real world business, what information I do have makes me wonder why SL hasn’t just dissolved as a business. How about it Linden Lab, care to respond please?
  12. Keep in mind that even if they were to deploy 2.0 as I type this, it would take 1-2 years to get the initial bugs out where it would really be useful. Then there would be an additional 2 years before LL could even think of it making a profit let alone as much as SL makes them currently. Then again, I do remember the teen grid and the noobie browser ideas 0.o
  13. What surprises me in the 216 pages of posts on the topic of a new platform just how many ignored Ebbe Linden’s words in the very first post. He says “Does this mean we’re giving up on Second Life? Absolutely not. It is thanks to the Second Life community that our virtual world today is without question the best there is, and after 11 years we certainly have no intention of abandoning our users nor the virtual world they continually fill with their astounding creativity. Second Life has many years ahead of it, and in addition to improvements and new developments specifically for Second Life, we think that much of the work we do for the next generation project will also be beneficial for Second Life”. Why are so many in a panic over this? If you don’t like the concept of a far superior platform to use, stay with the original! No one is being forced to move to the new platform period. All Linden Lab is attempting to accomplish is to bring in a new platform that will bring the technologies out of the 1990’s. Sure the current SL can have features added and improved upon, but it is still built on a base that is 15 years old. Just like any other technology, software design and operation has changed over the years. One thing that works well is often replaced by something that works better and in turn that is replaced by something better still. The problem is that there is a point in changes like this that the base platform must be rebuilt from scratch in the latest methods. A good example of this is with XP being replaced mostly because the base could not be made secure without a total rebuild. Linden Lab has already stated many times that your account can be transferred (without inventory) to the new platform. The inventory won’t be able to be transferred only because all current inventory is based on ancient technology. For those that love the graphics and game play in Frogger, more power to you, but I’d rather see the graphics and physics of modern games. For those that like the current SL and the limitations from technology go with it, again more power to you. Myself personally, I look forward to less lag, faster and more complete rezzing, and a less cartoon looking virtual world.
  14. WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: I sometimes hang out at NCI, which is one of those volunteer support groups in-world. I take it that you found that secret warehouse at area 51. NCI, New Citizen Inc, is the ultimate new user support group in SL in my opinion. With NCI's classes and group discussions on just about any conceivable SL related subject, it boggles my mind that LL doesn't not recognize its value by making it a default group when you first join SL. Still, at the moment, a new user has to stumble onto NCI to enjoy the benefits it provides. If funding is the issue of why there isn't more support in SL then all it would take would be to make NCI the official user support group. For any Linden that may view this, how about it?
  15. Something to keep in mind is that it takes more than one lowly machine to run something like SL. It takes hundreds of machines to make up one server component and SL uses several components like the login server, space sever, data server (asset server), and a few others. Add to that it takes a staff to monitor each component 24/7 and an offsite bank of servers to store all the data in case the component has a total system failure. This too needs staff to monitor it 24/7. So you can see how it can cost much more than 35 euros to run SL. LL does rent some of the component servers, such as SLVoice server, in order to reduce manpower and equipment maintenance costs. I don’t have any facts as to how much it actually costs to run a region, but let’s assume that LL wishes to double their investment on each to make their profit margin with a cost of $150.00 to maintain a region per month. It would make sense to lower the price from $300.00 a month to $200.00 a month and lease out twice as many regions. Of course, if they did attempt this and it fell flat on its face it would be disastrous to the company.
  16. I totally agree that LL has made some big mistakes Bobbie, and I really hope they bring the mentors back. A premium account doesn't solve all issues. For example, who do you contact if there is a problem with your account such as it being hacked or corupted? I'm sure there is somebody to contact but finding who is like finding the lost ark.
  17. Customer support has but one goal and that goal goes beyond simply helping the customer. That goal is to assure that the customer remains a satisfied customer that will return time and again to do business. A customer must feel wanted by the company and only by feeling wanted will a customer continue to be so. Ayesha makes very valid points on how and what customer support needs to be and how to do it. It is also true that wiki’s and forums are valuable tools in finding help. However, both have drawbacks that only direct one on one contact with a LL employee (or trained by LL volunteer) can cure. Wiki’s can never cover every contingency or variations on a question and if it can be edited by users it can be inaccurate as well. Forums can provide sound advice but can also be filled with misinformation and are seldom, if ever, the official word of Linden Lab. It cannot be support if LL doesn’t even read these forums as Alwin mentioned earlier. A proper customer support must contain the following aspects. First the customer does need to be directed to the wiki pages and forums. If the person cannot find the right answers they need the option of contacting a real person in the form of a LL employee or an official LL volunteer. This can be done with supplying an email address, live chat, phone number, or a ticket system. The most important aspect is that support needs to be a close to real time as possible. LL has already proved it has the capability to do so with its excellent tech support it now provides. What of the new person that just joined SL and doesn’t fully understand the TOS, or what about the veteran user that wants something new clarified like from the total confusion that happened when the skilled gaming policy was put in place? What about what is considered copyright infringement? Sure the TOS explains it but not in much detail. I often hear “I see others do it so it must be ok”. A user has to guess and wait to see if their items are pulled or if they get banned which all could have been avoided if a question was answered.
  18. regardless that is wrong, it isn't the point of this posting
  19. It was the last part of 2008 just before LL implemented the infamous plan to focus on new users only.
  20. First of all I want to say that, as one that has enjoyed being on Second Life since 2008, this thread not just a rant but a concern that I feel that Second Life is in danger from a business standpoint. Over those years I have watched where the biggest issue was when 100,000 people were online the servers would crash due to overload. Today, the number online may only be in the 30,000 range due to people being run off by what is perceived as Linden Lab being uncaring to its customer’s needs. This may or may not be true, but regardless it is how I have heard over and over from other users how they truly feel due to seemingly Linden Lab’s unwillingness to interact with its customers on a one to one basis of support. Yes Linden Lab has a top notch technical support team these days with a staff, for both live chat and tickets, that shows what good customer support can be in my experience. There are meetings one can attend to ask questions on technical topics. But what about the other areas of support? Other than this avenue, there isn’t any. There isn’t any method to have policy rules clarified. One can only guess at the interpretation of the policy and hope that the choice doesn’t get them banned. Sure one can file an abuse ticket when someone is causing trouble, but users never hear that their concerns were addressed or even if the report was even looked at by a human being and users can only take Linden Lab’s word that all abuse tickets are looked at. There isn’t any live viewer support, such as Firestorm has, or if there is it is well hidden from a general user. The point is that any business, big or small, must understand that its customers are its lifeblood. There are many users that love that Second Life allows them the ability to enjoy a more normal existence due to disability or other concerns. There are those that operate real businesses that generate income for Linden Lab through tier on regions. Instead of addressing the needs of these customers, and many others, in a responsible and caring way, Linden Lab offers very vague guidelines that rely on word of mouth interpretations of its users to each other. A customer must not feel it is akin to a holy quest to a magical mountain (plus pay $100) just to find out if something is considered skilled gaming, or if they will lose their investment when Second life 2.0 is in operation. The cure is simple, place users as the most important aspect of Second Life. There are thousands of users more than willing to give constructive input to make that possible. Make sure those in upper management actually log in to see, from a customer’s perspective, just what true issues need to be addressed instead of just thinking up the latest gizmo to install. By far the most important to incorporate would be to open venues to discuss needs with the company. These, and others, are all part of a sound business strategy that a happy consumer will continue to want your product. And to close out, I wonder if anyone at Linden Lab will bother to even read this.
  21. If I'm not mistaken what makes collecting IP addresses illegall is what you use them for. Collecting for marketing is pefectly legal....collecting to control another persons computer or account is not.
  22. The same thing was said about mobile markets themselves a very short time ago, so who knows for sure?
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