Why my animosity towards LindenLabs is fading

When I originally signed up in SL, I had a lot of great, warm and positive feelings towards LL.

Sure, the place was buggy.. yeah it was going down. And that was annoying, but I'm technical, I understood how complex this was, so I could be patient. And hell, this place was very very cool. I had no reasons to be anything other than happy with LindenLabs.

But then, after awhile of being in SL, I developed an acid tongue in the forums, and I started to regularly lash out at LindenLabs.

Why?

I am technical, I understand bugs. And, truth be told, none of them really pissed me off. Hell.. I have had worse problems with Microsoft. And, I was still having fun in SL, building and creating. There really was nothing really that crazy blocking my way.

And yet, I lashed out so easily. I relished using forum moderators as a target and felt in someways they symbolized all that was wrong with the company.

But yet lately, I've noticed that I am more than likely to stick up for SL and even excuse them for certain things when they go wrong.

It's not really because technically things have improved, they most certainly haven't. Physics still really sucks, I can't do include files, programming in LSL is a nightmare, the login database still has problems .. but yet, I am happy.

Why is that? Why am I no longer angry as I was before?

The answer is pretty simple: the forum trolls have all left. Except for a couple of die hards, one by one, practically every angry, mean tasting, personalizing and deragatory troll has moved on.

Whether it be from "malaise" or from disagreement with SL and how they do things, they have pretty much all moved on, and in their place are a new wave of optimistic, fresh, insightful, mature and very very creative individuals.

And this has left me feeling good about SL. It has left me feeling inspired, passionate, and excited again. I want to contribute positively. I don't want to slag LindenLab.

Once again, I feel like I can take creative risks without having to deal with all the interpersonal nonsense that almost always inevitably followed.

And while it may seem like, my point here is not to gloat. My point here hopefully is to make the Lindens realise that what they have now is what they always should have had and what they should jealously guard going forward (but sadly, probably will not):

A community which is filled with positive, mature, creative individuals who aren't here just to knock each other down for having the courage to make mistakes when they do not.

Am I one of the die hard trolls, AM I!? AM I?!!?

Seriously, Nice post Blaze

Nice post blaze... I think the longer you stay in this world, the better sense you gain for the magnitude of this software project. LL isn't just building EQ3, they are building the next gen Internet straight from the protocols up...

So, wait: You're no longer angry because all of your competition is gone? I dunno, champ, I think that would leave me pretty bored, if I were in your position.

*clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*

Thank you, blaze. Well said.

This is good news! And now that you're feeling a bit better about things, I think it's a perfect time to nag you about the trolley in Boardman, which I love! But it keeps flying into one of the house on the corner and dissapearing at the end of it's route. Literally flying! It's frightening for newbies to witness.

I've had a similar change of heart with this reasoning.

And yes please tame the trolley. It chased me clear across the sim the other day before diving into the house that it has apparently adopted as it's own. Hey I wonder if it could sit at a station and only patrol a couple of times a day or when someone sat on it for a tour?

Newbies? Hell, that ghost trolley gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Although I did not attend the SLCC, I think it's interesting to read how well the attendees got along. Proving I guess that our interest in SL gives us a lot more in common than we might think. Our differences here seem small in comparison. *wipes a single, huge, sentimental tear from his cheek*

I know! When Merwan left it really transformed the forums.

~Ulrika~

When I originally signed up in SL, I witnessed a lot of great, warm and positive feelings towards LL. I found the forums during a huge system crash as 2004 faded into 2005. Anyone remember how long was it down? Wasn't it more than a day? I read with fascination as so many people chose to gather here to connect with their friends rather than go off to other games. Back then, complaints and criticism of LL came from new members and were responded to by oldbies who explained the of complexity of the system and that the goal was to achieve something that doesn't exist elsewhere.

What's needed is both a range and balance to our connect; a time to vent, to tackle problems, to brainstorm new ventures and ideas, to learn about what others are doing and experiencing. The idea is to help each other and LL move forward.

I have never had an animosity toward LL. On the contrary, I have been very supportive of them even at times when others haven't been (all the screaming about GOM). I do get frustrated sometimes, especially of late with development delays and onerous new TOS rules. However, this thread has shocked me in that so far the number of those who have lost inventory exceeds those who haven't. I did not expect that at all, and that adds to my anger at this issue.

For every misstep that Linden Lab has made, there is so much stuff that they have done right, and for that I give them a lot of credit and patience. However, significant data loss, whether it is inventory that disappears or builds that get destroyed through bugs and glitches, is an extremely serious problem that Linden Lab needs to get under control or the problem will worsen.

Problems will always occur with data, but there is no excuse for inadequate disaster recovery, especially for the amount of money customers are outlaying in tier fees and item purchases (even if LL disavows any value on one hand while promoting the money making aspects and currency exchange on the other). I have faith that they will get a handle on this, but it is wavering in the face of a lot of other things.

Got attention?

I too am feeling much more kindly disposed toward Linden Lab since attending the Erewhon Re-Education Camp, Miru (24, 79) which is in operation 24/7, no appointment needed.

By doing that, wouldn't you be providing it?

Speaking out on behalf of someone who's not likely to know he's been maligned. Merwan has had his share of negativity here, but I well remember his many "excellents!". I don't think this thread was intended to be a place to shout out and name names.

Actually, she was being sarcastically humorous, not actually attacking Merwan.

Oh I see now; an inside joke. My apologies. Sorry to intrude.

Excellent!

~Ulrika~

Nice post blaze. I love the positive spirit of it.

One thing puzzles me though. The title is about anymosity towards Linden Lab, but the meat of your message is about your reaction to the behavior of certain residents. Are you saying you now realize that you had been mistakenly lashing out a LL instead of at the individuals who actually made you angry? I think that's what you mean, but I'm not quite sure.

Nah, not really an inside joke at all, just taking someone who is obviously not a troll and saying "yeah, good thing they are gone!" in response to Blaze's comments about all the trolls going back under their respective bridges.

Yes, Cris, I did understand that the original comment was a comedic quip focused on one line of the original post.

I won't argue whether it was a mistake or not, except to say that I think the impulse was definitely a natural one.

My experience with other sites is that moderation can keep trolling behaviour to a minimum. The fact that LL didn't do this made me unconciously think they condoned it, because they could have done something about it.

Nice troll...err, post, blaze. Subtle, sophisticated, and an Excellent!tm facsimile of sincerity.

The stellar quality of your forum art is such that you've inspired others to out-do your genius, and I salute you for that. Never have I seen innocence, niavete, and gullibility so convincingly portrayed by such a broad group of people, as on this thread. If I didn't have such a high respect for the intelligence and perception of people here, I might actually have thought that they believed your post to be sincere - and that you were not merely setting up another of your "let's see how many folks will react to this one" threads.

Truly this is performance art at its best, with a talented bunch of people here - led by you, blaze - revealing to the rest of us the tensions between forum sincerity and insincerity, manipulation and let-live, pro-Linden and con-Linden, and other great literary themes of Second Life.

Well played, Seth. You didn't even need to use your Epic Keyboard to reduce me to dazzled admiration.

The piano has been drinking.