Feedback on the SL Profile Feeds

[Caitlin Tobias]

Since this is the only section on the official Forum that is for feedback, I would like to give my pro-active feedback on the SL Profile Feed in here, even if it is not specifically forum related - I have no idea where else to put it.

First: I really like the new SL Profile feed and it's options to share snapsnot including locations! I am an enthusiastic user and already found some wonderful places to explore, thanks to the snapshots including location! Yay!

However, having used all this for some weeks now, I have a 'wishlist' with some options/extra's I would love to see in the profile feeds:

- to be able to create lists for friends/groups (filters!)
- create community photo-albums/or albums for which you can set the access/view-rights
- have muted/blocked residents also blocked from my feed! (this is a need-to-have, not a nice-to-have)
- have the option to decline a follower (much like the follow-request on Twitter)
- have the option PER status update on who can read it (like on Facebook)
- allow me to choose per status  update if others can love it or comment on it
- an app for  iPad/tablet/iPhone/Android
- ability to respond/post via email
- tags for commercial/advertising posts - much like event-listing - and the option to have them displayed or not (filters!)
- the option to flag a post as inappropiate/spam etc. (mini RIC)

No doubt there is more to add, am sure others have ideas too!

I would appreciate some feedback from LL on this, or let me/us know where to go with our feedback on the profile feeds.

[BothamFidor]

Caitlin - great minds think alike! I was going to start a thread like this. It might even be worth its own subforum!!!

First though, some questions!

Does anyone know if LL consulted residents about what they were going to put into the feeds capability in Profiles?

Was anyone part of a joint design initiative?

Did anybody do any user testing? (I won't say beta testing, because as someone else has noted, it is still alpha code)

Does LL care about what their current customers want in this respect?

Or did they just design something that was as close to Facebook's spec as possible.

(Including the security issues)

I am not simply being critical of the way they have done it (although I am) but would like to encourage anybody here in the forums who may have used the profile feeds (the important thing is that you DON'T have to be inworld to use them - go to http://my.secondlife.com and you can access them directly - even if you are banned from the forums, for example!) to offer comments - CONSTRUCTIVE ones please - on how they might be improved to satisfy your desires.

In fact, I would encourage any forumites who might have become jaded with inworld activities, or find that they can not log on inworld because their computer isn't up to it, or because big brother is watching at work, to go to http://my.secondlife.com and take a look at what it offers.

As a starter might I point out that it solves the problem that has bugged so many people over the years here, of how to communicate with friends inworld when you can't log on inworld. You just IM them or send them a Direct Message or even post a comment, love it, and then use an alt to love it as well so it pops up in the global Trending feed.

There are severe problems at the moment, which LL may or may not be looking at. You can't stop people from following you (although Rod has managed to lash up a kludge, I understand) without stopping everyone from following you. You can't block/mute individuals that annoy you. Once the event and product vendors realise the potential of the Trending feed it will become full of advertisements. The list goes on.

But I don't want to concentrate on the negatives. I think it has a huge potential. If we could only get LL to allow us to classify our "friends" further it would make like easier. If we could use Groups as feed channels for chat as we do inworld it would make a huge amount of sense!

The use of feeds for communication privately, semi-privately, semi-publicly, publicly and external to LL's web properties needs to be addressed also. The current ToS and Community Guidelines are hopelessly inadequate and inappropriate in dealing with the complexities of the platform. Perhaps another opportunity for a joint initiative?

I understand that there is a CTUG meeting scheduled imminently. Now Lexie has returned perhaps she can pour some oil on troubled waters, if not yet build a bridge (cue for a video?) between the community and the loose cannons that have dumped a half-thought-out facility on to a cynical audience.

Over to you, for your opinions, fellow forumites and Lexie. (and hopefully they won't disturb the moderators)

Fidor

[BothamFidor]

I am not even going to dare to suggest that using the "Interests" voluntary information as a means of targeting advertising feeds (for both inworld businesses and real world ones, possibly via Google Ads) would help LL's business position and might allow more high class marketing, support and development staff to be hired. Maybe an investment could be made in a boolean spam filter system that would accurately identify the TV spam before it hit the forums too!

Fidor

[Caitlin Tobias]

Oh, good points Fidor!

Security, spam (in all forms) , griefing/trolling and PG vs Adult are not so easy to tackle maybe. Although some of that could be covered in a specific set of rules, something like 'terms of use for sl feeds/profile", which you should be able to access easily with a button on your feed (so you can't say you did not know)?

Also, now I am thinking about these feeds anyway, I would like to have the option to publish via Flickr/Tumblr or whatever site one uses to host images and vice versa.
Same for Plurk. At this moment you can already share your update on twitter and Facebook, but Plurk is also used by a large group of SL'ers (even Linden Lab has a Plurk account!).

 

 

[Venus Petrov]

Good OP, Caity!  While there may be someone at LL who will read this, do not expect a reply (this from Viale Linden at the last CTUG a few weeks ago).

What became very clear to me, particularly this past weekend, is the need to sweep the feeds for spam.  Someone littered all over several feeds with a 'so what' attitude when challenged (even Rod's feed!  the gall!).  Then, in an attempt to sweep up his shame, he deleted most, if not all of them.  If only he realized that people have an option to send notifications to email.

P.S. New poster!  Welcome to SLF Fidor!

[Caitlin Tobias]

---

Venus Petrov wrote:

Good OP, Caity!  While there may be someone at LL who will read this, do not expect a reply (this from Viale Linden at the last CTUG a few weeks ago).

What became very clear to me, particularly this past weekend, is the need to sweep the feeds for spam.  Someone littered all over several feeds with a 'so what' attitude when challenged (even Rod's feed!  the gall!).  Then, in an attempt to sweep up his shame, he deleted most, if not all of them.  If only he realized that people have an option to send notifications to email.

P.S. New poster!  Welcome to SLF Fidor!

---

Thanks, Venus.

 

Yup, the flood of spam that happened also hit my feed. The only thing I could do from my side was keep on deleting it and ignore it, giving them no platform on - at least - MY wall.

Not sure if I would want a 'moderator' checking on the feeds, I even doubt this is possible with so many accounts and feeds.

A button to flag/report such spam/junk-post would have been great, and more so: the option to block someone and thus preventing them from posting on your wall.

In fact I would not at all mind going for the block method facebook has: once you block someone they dissapear for you, but you also dissapear for them, blocking always works both ways. When you unblock someone on Facebook, you can only block them again after 24 hours....making it less attractive to block/unblock/troll and spam/block again.

 

At this moment it is almost an 'all or nothing' with the limited settings one can use on the feeds.

 

[BothamFidor]

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Venus Petrov wrote:

Good OP, Caity!  While there may be someone at LL who will read this, do not expect a reply (this from Viale Linden at the last CTUG a few weeks ago).

What became very clear to me, particularly this past weekend, is the need to sweep the feeds for spam.  Someone littered all over several feeds with a 'so what' attitude when challenged (even Rod's feed!  the gall!).  Then, in an attempt to sweep up his shame, he deleted most, if not all of them.  If only he realized that people have an option to send notifications to email.

P.S. New poster!  Welcome to SLF Fidor!

---

I actually effectively closed an account (which I will now just use inworld with a viewer that does not suffer from the lag associated in accessing Profile Feeds) over the weekend because of the stupidly monotonous spam postings by one individual. This is a new account for the forums and feeds which I shall ensure is secured as far as possible against such ridiculously intrusive and irresponsible behavior.

Thanks for your welcome.

Fidor

[Sy Beck]

I don't think there are any more points or issues I could add to Cait's and Botham's excellent posts, which have pretty much covered the whole spectrum.  I would though urge LL staff monitoring this forum to communicate these thoughts quickly to which ever team has charge of this area within LL, both technical and administrative.

As has been mentioned by the above posters there is a large amount of scope for the system to be abused, which has been evident the past few days by malicious spamming.  As Botham pointed out, the potential for spam advertisers exists too and it will only be a matter of time until this occurs whether by them noticing the opportunity themselves or noticing that the issue is being raised here and elsewhere.

Also it would be useful to have stated what the guidelines are, if any are specific, apropos the feeds as they are able to be viewed by the entire internet userbase if set that way.  If people wanted to post adult pics or products in their feeds are they allowed to do so?  Should there be some classification as exists on the Marketplace or filters and tags as Cait has suggested.

Finally can I too welcome Lexie back and hope that this means a more constructive dialogue can occur between residents and LL for the benefit of both and ask her if she could seek out Void Singer and entice her back with an olive branch.

[Venus Petrov]

---

Sy Beck wrote:

I don't think there are any more points or issues I could add to Cait's and Botham's excellent posts, which have pretty much covered the whole spectrum.  I would though urge LL staff monitoring this forum to communicate these thoughts quickly to which ever team has charge of this area within LL, both technical and administrative.

As has been mentioned by the above posters there is a large amount of scope for the system to be abused, which has been evident the past few days by malicious spamming.  As Botham pointed out, the potential for spam advertisers exists too and it will only be a matter of time until this occurs whether by them noticing the opportunity themselves or noticing that the issue is being raised here and elsewhere.

Also it would be useful to have stated what the guidelines are, if any are specific, apropos the feeds as they are able to be viewed by the entire internet userbase if set that way.

 If people wanted to post adult pics or products in their feeds are they allowed to do so?

 Should there be some classification as exists on the Marketplace or filters and tags as Cait has suggested.

Finally can I too welcome Lexie back and hope that this means a more constructive dialogue can occur between residents and LL for the benefit of both and ask her if she could seek out Void Singer and entice her back with an olive branch.

---

It is already happening.  The barn door is wide open.  (no pun intended)

[Freecilla Kuhn]

If you got to Settings > Privacy, you can set some of the options you have mentioned you would like added.

I understand the knee jerk reaction for people to say the feed is facebook based but now that it is out, it seems better since it does not have all of the nonsense that facebook does, (remember facebook only has facebook so they have no choice but to continuously cram tons of junk in it to try to keep it interesting). The feed is simple and easy to use. If you want to add friends to a list create a group and add them there, your groups are already in a list in the Groups tab. You can set your feed so only your friends can see it so if you do not want someone to see it remove them from your friends list. To reply via email, if you get an email notification click the link in it to open your feed and reply. I am guessing on most of this because I do not use the feed however it seems to me the feed is meant to work with the rest of the SL system.

I am sure if I used it more I could find improvements that could be made but the more complicated anything becomes the more complaints, fixes and time is spent on it by all. I would rather LL spent time improving the inworld experience over other things.

[Caitlin Tobias]

---

Freecilla Kuhn wrote:

If you got to Settings > Privacy, you can set some of the options you have mentioned you would like added.

I understand the knee jerk reaction for people to say the feed is facebook based but now that it is out, it seems better since it does not have all of the nonsense that facebook does, (remember facebook only has facebook so they have no choice but to continuously cram tons of junk in it to try to keep it interesting). The feed is simple and easy to use. If you want to add friends to a list create a group and add them there, your groups are already in a list in the Groups tab. You can set your feed so only your friends can see it so if you do not want someone to see it remove them from your friends list. To reply via email, if you get an email notification click the link in it to open your feed and reply. I am guessing on most of this because I do not use the feed however it seems to me the feed is meant to work with the rest of the SL system.

I am sure if I used it more I could find improvements that could be made but the more complicated anything becomes the more complaints, fixes and time is spent on it by all. I would rather LL spent time improving the inworld experience over other things.

---

Hi Freecilla!

Yes, there are some privacy settings, but they do not offer what I mentioned in my 'wishlist'. I would like to have my feed open to all SL residents, not only for my friends.

However, some posts I may wish to share with friends only, or with my SL-Samurai Clan only, and I can't do that now.

Also, I cannot block an individual from my feed, not even by muting them in SL.

The email replying I mean is: post directly via email (lets say e.g. from my iPhone). I can now indeed receive notifications, but when i hit the reply in email, it will open my feed on a webpage - I cannot skip that.

 

 

[Ceera Murakami]

As someone who does NOT find the new feeds to be all that wonderful or useful, I still agree with many of the points raised in this thread.

We really need a way to subdivide our Friends list, both in-world and for the purposes of the profile feeds, into groups of various sorts. I have over 120 people on my Friends list. Some are there because they truly are friends that I socialize with. Many are there as business contacts - people who purchase my content and contact me on occasion with product requests or support questions, or who hire me to build for them. Some are there strictly because they like to ask me for assistance on occasion with building, texturing or scripting. Some are merchants that I like to keep in touch with, because I like their products. Some are there simply because they are my own alts, and having them on my Friends list makes it easier to send them money or inventory. As far as profile feeds go, I would want to filter each of these diffferently, if I used the feeds at all - like having one filter to look at my social friends, and another to look at merchant friends, and filtering most of the rest out.

The ability to mute indivuduals from the profiles if they are muted in-world is a necessity.

The ability to ban an individual from following your feed is needed.

The ability to choose on a post by post basis who can love or comment is needed.

A flag for "commercial announcements" that can be filtered on is needed, and that needs to go both ways - It would actually be more useful to me to filter out everything in the Feeds and in Trending that is NOT a commercial announcement, so I can see the merchant product announcements in the sea of social irrelevancies. Others may never want to see a commercial announcement in their social streams.

As implemented now, I find the "Trending" completely useless. A handful of individuals are keeping their own posts at the top of that feed by loving their own posts with alts, or by loving each other's posts, and the people that appear there are completely unrelated to my own Friends or Interests. I don't know any of them, nor do I care that they fed their goldfish again today, and 5 people "loved" that post. I would "love" to just turn that off, or to filter trending so it only showed the trends in those who I follow.

[BothamFidor]

---

Freecilla Kuhn wrote:

If you got to Settings > Privacy, you can set some of the options you have mentioned you would like added.

I understand the knee jerk reaction for people to say the feed is facebook based but now that it is out, it seems better since it does not have all of the nonsense that facebook does, (remember facebook only has facebook so they have no choice but to continuously cram tons of junk in it to try to keep it interesting). The feed is simple and easy to use. If you want to add friends to a list create a group and add them there, your groups are already in a list in the Groups tab. You can set your feed so only your friends can see it so if you do not want someone to see it remove them from your friends list. To reply via email, if you get an email notification click the link in it to open your feed and reply. I am guessing on most of this because I do not use the feed however it seems to me the feed is meant to work with the rest of the SL system.

I am sure if I used it more I could find improvements that could be made but the more complicated anything becomes the more complaints, fixes and time is spent on it by all. I would rather LL spent time improving the inworld experience over other things.

---

While I am delighted that you felt moved to comment Freecilla, I think it likely that any comments you have might be lent more force if you actually used the feeds. Would you want a vegetarian waiter recommending which steak to eat?

Fidor

[BothamFidor]

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Ceera Murakami wrote:. I don't know any of them, nor do I care that they fed their goldfish

---

You're only saying that because you're a cat!

Fidor

ETA The rest of your post was gold.

[Caitlin Tobias]

Thanks Ceera!

Yes, the Trending as it is now is...well, not useful. It only takes two loves to get a post Trending, that is bit too easy to manipulate. Also, oddness that one can love their own posts, which may only contribute to manipulating trending.

As for filtering commercial announcements from the social talk, YES! There are moments I just feel like chitchatting about and sometimes I want to see what is new and going on in the market or am looking for an event. Choice would be lovely!

 

[Ceera Murakami]

---

BothamFidor wrote:

You're only saying that because you're a cat!

---

A fox, actually. A three tailed Kitsune, to be precise. And either way, goldfish are tasty! *wink*

[Caitlin Tobias]

Via some clicking around, I found the wikipage for the usergroup of My.secondlife.com!

Apparently there have been meetings, but I can't see who is the chair-Linden - nor when the next meeting is scheduled.

 

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/My.secondlife.com_User_Group

[BothamFidor]

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Caitlin Tobias wrote:

Via some clicking around, I found the wikipage for the usergroup of My.secondlife.com!

Apparently there have been meetings, but I can't see who is the chair-Linden - nor when the next meeting is scheduled.

 

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/My.secondlife.com_User_Group

---

Perhaps Lexie will be able to offer an answer at the next CTUG meeting, if no other Linden is prepared to do so before.

Or maybe we could ask Linden Lab on his/her/its/their Profile Feed?

Or send an email to community@lindenlab.com asking them to update the User Group calendar and wiki information.

Looking at the calendar as it stands they don't seem to be very busy.

Fidor

[Griffin Ceawlin]

"To Be Determined at Denby."

That page hasn't been touched since September.

ETA: It appears that it used to be scheduled for the 1st Tuesday of the month at 11am SLT.

[BothamFidor]

---

Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

"To Be Determined at

Denby

."

That page hasn't been touched since

September

.

---

They should have made a lot of progress on the development side then.

Fidor

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

Nice!  A wishlist:

I would like the option of choosing who is allowed to follow me - block those unfriendly voices

More posting options - I would like the option of posting to:

• Friends
• Followers
• Friends and Followers
• All of SL
• Public

I would like to see advertisers post only to "Followers" or "Friends and Followers" so the rest of us don't have to see the spam.  They could post to everyone they currently send spam to inworld (and stop filling up my notification box with crap) and as a bonus it will be extra easy to not receive it anymore - just UNfollow them.  I have tried blocking/muting these ads inworld and it doesn't always work.

I would,also, like the option of NOT having my post "Trend"

Is that enough?  I will think of some other things later.

Cinn

 

Edited for clarity

[Venus Petrov]

Ohh Cinn, I like the idea of only friends and/or followers of spammers seeing the spam!  That might have spared me a few 100 notifications last weekend.

[Caitlin Tobias]

Kewl, this thread is moved...It took me a while to find it back, a notification would have been nice.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Caitlin Tobias wrote:

Kewl, this thread is moved...It took me a while to find it back, a notification would have been nice.

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They used to leave a redirect when they moved a thread... they must have gotten lazy while Lexie was away.  Perhaps we need to chastise them at the next CTUG... by proxy anyway. :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

...Dres

[Freecilla Kuhn]

A vegetarian may comment on any other for food source as they are all living things being kill for consumption or eaten alive.

I do not believe all doctors and scientists that do not have cancer should immediately stop working on a way to cure it. Nor should engineers that have never or will never go into outer space should stop designing machines to take others into space.

People create based on observation not use, once design and implementation is made feedback can be a useful tool but it is not the only source of advancement nor should it be held over all others.