Dear Lindens

Dear Philip, Robin, Torley, et al:

I don't want to add any more noise than we already have, but I do think that the closing of the forums is symptomatic - symbolic, if you will - of other things that are going on with Second Life. Things that I haven't seen addressed in the multiple complaints and dismissal threads today. I hope you take the time to read this and give it consideration. I'll try to stay on point and not get long-winded.

Brief background: I have almost 15 years' experience in customer service with two different corporations. I've taken countless seminars on handling customers and can add my own experience to my views. I have also sysoped on several other boards in the past, notably 2 gamers boards and the old Sony Everquest boards. I'm fully aware that the resources required to maintain these things seems to outrun their apparent return to the company. I understand that, from a bottom-line standpoint. I am also aware that web boards, due to their anonymity coupled with the high level of emotional investment by customers, can be cesspools of whining, griping and flaming. That comes with the territory. This board actually has had less of the noise than many others I've frequented.

But it would also be fair to say that, for every 10 decibels of noise they also produce 1 or 2 decibels of useful signal. Signal that cannot really be captured with blogs or third party forums -- and that, mainly because the Second Life forums are the Average SL Joe/Jane's most obvious conduit to both the Lindens and to other residents.

The focus of any customer relations department should always be customer perceptions. Not facts, not data, not corporate bottom line (though that is indirectly affected) -- perceptions are a different thing. They are mostly emotional, mostly anecdotal, but bear importance out of all proportion to their factual base. Companies who ignore customer perception do so at the peril of their business. As Sony (SWG). Ask Mythic (DAOC). Ask Tulga (Horizons). It would be over-simplifying things to claim that the failure of all 3 of those MMOGs was due to bad customer service, but it would also be accurate to point out that customer service, or lack of it, played a major role.

What is Customer service? Listening to your customers. Giving them a central place where their opinions can be expressed. Responding to Abuse Reports with more than "We heard you". Actively seeking their input before major policy changes are implemented for such things as opening up your registration process to anyone with a computer. You missed an ideal opportunity to explain your thinking before the event (thus reducing the furor afterward) as well as an ideal opportunity to hear us tell you that anti-griefing tools were totaly inadequate to cope with such an influx. Instead, we got a Linden blog entry 3 or 4 days after the change which claimed that ARs had not increased, despite our direct personal experience to the contrary. It was an unspoken message that said "We don't really care what you think, we're doing it anyway."

Companies must create a vision and pursue that vision in order to survive. The Lindens' vision as we've perceived it lately has been that you want to be international. You want one million subscribers regardless of the impact on the social fabric of Second Life. And, more than anything, the perception we get is that you believe that the Second Life concept is so technologically/culturally ahead of anyone else that you needn't fear competition.

You were the first company to grant IP rights to its subscribers (bravo- it's what brought me to SL). You are the only MMO right now that features 99% user-created content and, despite the chaotic, buggy nature of that content you still manage to keep the grid running most of the time. All these things are landmarks in the world of virtual communities and you are to be applauded so far.

But please, do not forget that technology alone will never keep you safe. If you can invent it, someone else will copy it. When the race evens up, the victory will not go to the snazziest interface or the largest number of subscribers. It will go to the world where users feel as though they matter, that they're listened to, and that they have a voice.

When you shut the forums down, you will be cutting a major resource drain. You say you will be redirecting those resources into more productive areas that will hopefully improve Second Life. I hope that happens -- but do not dismiss this board as completely useless, please. For every poster there are probably 10 lurkers who never speak up. For every flame war, there is vital information sharing, connections, and friendships formed here that will be difficult to replace on other boards or on blogs. Shutting down the board feels like you're shutting us up. And when that happens enough, most of us won't scream and rant. We'll just go away.

Ask Sony. Ask Mythic. Ask Tulga.

Thank you for saying that so well.

I don't post alot, almost never. But I do read the forums, they are a great source of both general and very specific info. It will be a great lost to me, and to other lurkers.

I'm going to miss your commentaries, Cindy - even the ones I don't agree with, I applaud.

I would only add that even flame wars and noise have their uses, and - controlled wisely - contribute to the creative, progressive, judicial, and community milieu. What contributes nothing is silence. What destroys is parsed and approved dialogue.

Very well said!
thank you

Very Well Done.

I completely agree Cindy.

I agree and can honestly say I bring some of the experience to this post that Cindy said up there about working in customer service.
I point to Wal-Mart right now as an example. They started out small and spent all they could fostering a "grass roots" mentality. They prided themselves on the communication avenues they had open to employees and customers. This worked so well that they grew and grew and grew and took over the retail world. And then they forgot about the voices of the people that lift them up and keep them there. Ironicaly they used to have "grass root surveys" that allowed comments by employees to voice opinions. At one point not long ago they decided that it would be better to streamline the process. Now rather then reviewing specific comments they have a form of agrees and disagrees. I have many friends that work in various positions from hourlys to people I know even at their own home office. All are very frustrated and jaded because they lost that vital line of communication. They now feel they work for a cold money grabbing robotic company.
I don't think you at LL know what impact this can cause. I pay you land tiers and premium fees and for my money I want you to know I will be unhappy if you take this vital part of service from me.
I have learned much here about this "platform". I often find help while I am trying to learn about things I never explored before.
As a paying customer, listen to me. I am not happy with this choice.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this.

Dear Cindy,

meet me in world later. I want to give you a proper rogering. Thank you.

Me too!

I mean, indeed, that is a well-written and fair post.

If people think the Second Life forum is a fountain of verbal diarrhea, then why not go hang out on some of the popular MMOs boards for a while? The trolling and shitmongering that occurred here was usually much less benign. Most of it was just amusing at best.

If LL wants to cut down the crap, they need to identify the problem areas and then clamp down will fulltime moderation. None of this resmod wishy-washiness. If LL doesn't have the time to deal with the forums, then they just have to accept the signal-to-noise ratio. The only other option is the one they are choosing, which I believe will harm the community in the long run, even if it fixes some problems in the short run.

As others have expressed in these forums, I too am growing disillusioned with the changes made to Second Life. I haven't been here all that long, but the amount of feelgood "all is well" vibes that are coming from LL while the system continues to be down for a good number of hours a week with frequent broken patches doesn't inspire confidence.

Shuttling community feedback towards tightly-controlled information-dispensing blogs is just an admission of defeat in my eyes.

every post of yours i read on here makes me like you all the more Cindy

Wow, so brilliantly articulated. All points hammered home. I hope the powers that be take the time to read you commentary, Cindy.

Good luck whereever you post next.

Extremely well said, very well said indeed.


I am.

Excellent post! I do not post very often, but I do read them almost every day, and I have found a great deal of help in the builders forums. Overall, I think this is a bad move.

Well said Cindy

Nah.

Well said, pity they won't pay any attention to it.

Applauds! Well said, Cindy. I've worked in international customer service for 30 years and if I were to emulate LL's example of how to treat customers, I would be out of a job.

Closing the forums is the equivalent of hanging up the phone on a customer.

Nice job Cindy!!

/me signs this and applauds!

Well, done, Cindy. Sums up my feelings rather nicely.

I am glad someone has said it cause I know I have been feeling it lately... I have been feeling like LL does not want to hear us... does not want anyone else to hear us either since I heard thier closing the forums... and going to a censored blog type system. I remember 3 games I played online that were all different types of game play ye all were interactive chat formats. I escaped to these games because I liked being able to interact if I did not feel like following the games scenarios. I have also seen a sad progression in all of them. And I am seeing it start here.

1. Opening floodgates to bring the game worldwide
2. floodgates now opened allow for children and abusers to get in freely and anonimously.
3. The Help option looses its ability to serve the community.
4. Excuses begin to run rampant as to technical issues.
5. Earning abilities are restricted to fund purchasing.
7. Sudden jump in population creation.
8. No change in actual population in game even durring peak hours. (Let me guess Banned players alts?)
9. Abandonment of game by its Premier or long time gamers or well known gamers.
10. Abandonment grows and unruly gamers grow in numbers
11. The gamers who support the game financially the most start leaving.
12. More restrictions on funds earning abilities using some invented economy report that a year ago was not an issue.
13. Closure of the Forums for cost reasons and moving to a more restricted form of communication.
14. Gamers begin to fight back against the ones the game allowed to come in and abuse them without any control.
15. Banning of people defending themselves.
16. Mass evacuation of game.
17. After that we all know what happens... you come back 6 months later and there are 6 people playing saying I thought this was supposed to be cool.

Follow my list and I bet you could check off the events almost in the exact order I have typed them in comparison to SL over the last 6 months. All i can say is get your opinions out now... Soon you wont be allowed to have one.

signs and gives a standing ovation

I wholeheartedly agree, Cindy that was so well said it brought a tear to my Eye.

I have come accustomed to coming to the boards and reading just for the sake of reading and I for one do not know what I will do. I think i will be lost for a while when they do close.

!!! Brava !!!



You said it exactly!!!








!!

Well said! did you post this in the answer forum? Did you post it in Robin's blog? Do the Lindens even read the comments to their blogs? Did you send this via snail mail directly to LL? I do not think they even care though. they don't care what we want, they don't care what we want because if they did they would ask us first, if they did they would listen to the many outcries to not shut down our most effecive means of communication with them and with each-other.

personally I think that once the forums are gone all the forum resources are going to have to go to pay people to answer phones and answer e-mail since that will be the only means left for us to get answers. But they probably won't which means that people will start to get mad about the bad customer service and leave.

No. To be honest I'm a little disheartened now. I feel sad that I've allowed myself to trust yet another online dev company and allowed myself to believe they actually care. I don't want to become jaded, but it's happening.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. Every word of it was from my heart.

* stands up and gives applause*

I'm one of those lurkers.
I've been playing for almost a year now, and reading the forums for only 2-3 months. But in that short time I've learned almost as much about SL as all my time inworld, which is conciderable. The forums are much more that just a gripe area. They're a place that we can exchange thoughts, ideas, and experiances. The forums are as much a community of SL as being inworld is. Maybe more so since we care enough to read and post our opinions and feelings of our Second Life.