Are The Lawyers Taking Over?

I've never quite understood LL's logic of closing down the forums. It just seems like a bad business decision from every direction I examine it. But this morning, while still trying to pump caffeine into my veins, and with only 1% of my brain awake, it occurred to me. It's the lawyers.

Bare with me on this, I've seen this before. If you think about closing down the forums in lawyer-think, it makes perfectly good sense. Let me explain...

As has been discussed in these forums, there are a number of ways that LL could potentially have problems with US civil and criminal law (gambling, in-world fraud, child-pron, money laundering, etc.). Unfortunately, those kind of problems come with the territory. So LL has to worry about legal ramifications. So how can LL keep their hands legally clean?

Lawyer-think is not like normal thought patterns. For example ostrich behaviour, i.e. putting your head in the sand and denying you knew anything about some subject, is a perfectly good logic in lawyer-think (as well as political-think).

But there is a problem. On LL owned forums, people are pointing out potential legal problems. You can't deny knowing something if it is publicly pointed out to you on your own property.

The solution? Remove the forums. Then LL has plausible deniability. If no one tells LL about potential legal problems, they have a defense.

I've seen this before. Lawyers are necessary, but most companies try to keep their lawyers locked up (look Billy, see the funny lawyers in the cage), and feed them only every other day through the bars. But unfortunately, every once in a while, the lawyers escape taking over the company and forcing the company to make business decisions based on lawyer-think.

nope.

I doubt that this is the reason - Pandora's Box is already open.

I prefer the "Occam's Razor solution" - the simplest answer is that they just don't care what we think. The Tao of Linden is far cooler and more important.

See, you are thinking logically, not in lawyer-think. Lawyers think you can close Pandora's Box.

I'm frickin suing you for posting this.

The stated reason is sufficient: the official forums are a pain in the ass to administer.
And no one is ever happy with how they are administered.
And LL is constantly harangued about not directing its corporate energy toward improving the in-world experience.
And SL fans are perfectly capable (and have already) set up their own discussion forums.

Solution: close the official forums.

Why conspiracy theories are needed to explain simple problems is beyond me.

Perhaps they can, but in this instance a very public precedent has been established in terms of what was listed - gambling, in-world fraud, child-pron, money laundering (and all the rest of the filth not listed) - and with the forums remaining open as "read only" there is no way they can exhibit ostrich-like behaviour in the form of denying having any knowledge.

Actually, I find it quite insufficient to explain the action. At least I can't explain it from a purely business point of view. Forums like this are huge assets to a company. Sure, they can be annoying, I've been on LL's side (Company VP) and had to suffer grodnards, idiots and complainers till I was dreaming about them. But that 'cost' is negligible when compared to the value a forum like this generates for a company.

This isn't conspiracy theory. Lawyers making business decisions is way too common in the business world. It's something I've always been aware of and tried to avoid when I'm running a company.

Ya know? There wouldn't BE any lawyers if folks would just stop having anal sex.

Don't worry. The blogs will tell us what to think.

It's simple... the official reasons have little to do with the reality. The forums are mostly social in nature, true. That social nature cannot easily be reproduced in game. I'm not even in the game right now, but I can chat with people via the forums. I can see what is going on in my favorite game via the forums. I can watch trends and track them so I can make products to suit, via the forums. An Official Blog isn't going to allow for that, since it will only be about what the Lindens want/need us to know.

Closing a major social center for the game, when they are touting that same social togetherness? Community? Well, it seems like they are saying one thing and doing an entirely other thing. Actions speak louder than words. Closing the forums means "We don't really care about the community you all have built. What you say isn't important anymore," after them actually saying they want that sense of community and more links between Lindens and players.

I've posted a few solutions to the problem that the forums pose, including a 'timed-banned system,' word filtering for the flame magnets and a time-out on old posts. All of which can be automated. Moderators whose job it is to moderate for those situations where the automated system fails.

Closing the forums due to a lack of scalability? *snort* Bull. It can be managed and has been on other places. If other places can do it, then certainly Linden Labs has the ability to do it! I firmly believe they can do it, if they set their minds to it.

What do you have when you see a lawyer buried up to her head in sand, with ants crawling all over her face ?




































Well you don't have enough sand for starters.

You're being logical and using common sense. Stop that.

I think this is an aspect, but also that they simply are not reading the forums that much, and are finding time spent administering issues relating to them not to their liking. It's not a project that has the interest of anyone who can budget employee time. This is of course, just a guess, but I don't read much conspiracy or legal fears into the forums closing.

You know, I got to thinking last night ( there had to be a first time )

Understanding Linden Lab policy is sometimes like trying to interpret Shakespeare.
( WHAT ?
Stay with me on this... )

For centuries people have been interpreting the bard's work :

He put this scene in to highlight the plight of Roman Catholics in Wales, etc etc
He used that sentence to mock the Bishop Pumcy who used similar in his speech to the king, etc etc
He choice that particular word as it is a pun on the taxation of the Irish, blah blah
He put that particular syllable there to mispronounce the word and thus sound like xxxx which in Nordic for......etc

You get the idea.

How about :
He was rushing, misspelled it, it rhymed and it sounded funny ?


The same could be said for Linden Lab's decisions.

Do they spent days and weeks internally discussing the social, political, environmental and economic impact of their decisions, do they have lengthy consultations with the world leaders and shakers, the lawyers etc - or do they call a quick meeting show the problems they have and take the first viable suggestion they get from the relevant department ?

Forums - Problem, cost too much to man, creating bad image, out of control......
Solution - Close them

Next item please...

Just a thought.

Let's put two pieces of information together:

The post where we are told the forums are closing:
Forum take a new turn

The post where Phillip explains how his new fangled company works:
Tao of Linden

The conclusion:
The forums are closing because no one at Linden labs WANTS to administer, maintain or moderate them. Instead they're letting us VOLUNTEER once more to have our own forums.

At this rate, I am expecting a volunteer created sign up system soon. Other projects linden lab employees might not want to work on:
1-alpha fighting
2-vehicle physics improvement
3-texture theft issues and possible remedies (think watermarking)
4-migrating mainland to class 3-4 servers
5-Pivots and joints
6-voice 2 voice chatting integration
7-improved permissions system
8-offline editor
9-open source stand alone server alpha

the list goes on...

lol

Troy

Hm, does that mean I can volunteer to be in charge of HR at Linden Labs? I've gots me some firin' to do.

Only if you enjoy it - else it against your job description

Oh I'd certainly enjoy it.

::cocks the pink-slip gun and aims for Philo.::

[/B]

*applauds* Yes, this is what I'm thinking is the sole reason for shutting down the forums. Oddly enough, if they had just straight out said that, rather than blame it on scalability (which is utter tripe, there are ways to deal with the problems, so why not try them first rather than close the forums,) I might feel a bit more understanding.

One thing I did notice... the lack of those promised tools for keeping the community together. Anyone else see them?