I told you so.

<sanctimony>

Aigh, this is terrible. Now there will be no one central discussion forum in which people can demonstrate their ineptitude and dilletantism, where I can then easily and publicly dissect their statements with the ostensible hope of persuading them of the error of their ways, and with a bonus effect of polarising and marginalising them - for the chances of them being persuaded otherwise of their goofy notions approaches zero due to conditions beyond my ability to influence."

</sanctimony>

Like Pandastrong said elsewhere, "Yeah, I'll be rght thre kthx."

Look at it this way: Linden Labs isn't disowning us. They're disowning an edifice that breeds situations in which people feel the need to push or skirt rules to get legitimate needs addressed, and in which people push or skirt rules in order to air their illegitimate desires, and in which there is no clear, fair, justifiable way to distinguish between the two behaviours. The Forums work great for community - but LL isn't in the business of running a Forum, which existed primarily as an aide to in-world development. The functions the Forums filled will be taken up by other LL tools, except the /community/, which for LL's purposes will still be in-game but if people want community on a /Forum/, by all means have fun doing it.

The most popular forum, the most active and vibrant and central and representative and influential forum, will be the one that eventually morphs into a kind of User Government - open to all, with as few rules as necessary, and with de facto or methodically-selected representatives/leaders.

The forums in which people can only discuss one or two things? They'll be highly efficient, limited to a few specialists, and will be only as influential and popular with the community and Linden Labs as the ability of their specialists is. If your specialty is trying to persuade Linden Labs that part of their Community Standards or policies are in need of "fixing" - Good Luck!

Your post made me chuckle because of the word "opportunity"; that is what we call dealing with problems at my workplace. We say that you are presented with an opportunity rather than the more direct "sucks to be you".

The tendency towards one's own community already exists. Getting people out of their own and into the community at large is the trick. Listening to other points of view, evolving in one's own mindset, and simply agreeing to disagree isn't easy. Hence, the drama, bickering, slings and arrows are rampant. Granted, not so much with your many communities with their own forums. But... *yawn*...what is the point of these little communities with their own little forums, anyway?

I am selective when it comes to friends, people I share my time and my self with. Still, I am interested in the community at large and I want to know what's going on with them in a centralized place, on neutral territory. Give me diversity. I don't agree with a lot, if not most, of what I read. I don't aspire to agree; I still want to know what's the thinking behind the views, the quips, the attacks, the lovefest,... My workplace tries to address the lack of diversity here by having a week devoted to it; what a joke. Maybe LL would open up the forums for a week once a year, too.

I won't be scouring the pockets of the internet for this blog or that.

I blame this asshole.

To be serious.

In retrospect, I think closing the 'vox populi' is probably a bad thing.
Although I think an independent forum, which in some way has the status and respect the official forums have, is better than the current forums, because the double face that LL has to uphold, as mentioned in the post above, is still a reality.
I think that it's impossible to create one which will not be seen by a group of residents as biased, though. This will cause a splintering of the community as a whole.

So, I have changed my initial opinion, and I think an official open platform for residents to give their opinion on current events is something that the community as a whole can't do without. I have no idea how to manage this in any decent way though...


You can now form the line to kick me.

im ok with the forums closing, im transferring jobs and from what i hear the new place has a big no no to do anything on the net.. /cry /shakes fist

Yeah, mine is still 'awaiting moderation' after 30 minutes...*taps foot*

Geez, that's gonna be so helpful

Been a while since you visited hasn't it?

Don't hold your breath. I posted a comment on another blog entry, and it took three days to make it to the live page.

You mean they are not chaos already??

Hooboy, see...right there. RIGHT THERE we already see a big failing of this official blog approach. Why is it that not *all* users have an equal and immediate voice on this official blog? Something's fishy here.

Ha! That's spelled FIChy, not fishy.

Just for old times sake.

I agree, but I don't think the evolution stops there. The problem is that the population continues to grow, and then you start seeing people splinter into sub-communities, and then conflict begins to arise between them.

I think encouraging residents to form their own forum communities will have a net positive effect on the general mood inside and outside SL.

This can happen on resident forums as well. In fact, I think you would be even more likely to meet people who you enjoy, and will likely find more things that interest you, since you will tend towards whichever resident-run community most matches your interests.

The problem is the general forums are a mix of too many people with too many varied interests. Encouraging them to form their own independent forum communities will let people focus on the types of things that interest them instead of spending their time fighting with conflicting interests in a common forum.

people grow from conflict...

-.-
well if they are dumb enough to do that i feel sorry for them cause my rear will be going there

seriously, you are incorrect, the only way you can learn acceptance is by being exposed to various things..

how limiting ppl are always amazes me

This obviously proves I am not FIC! I...don't know whether to laugh or cry.

PWND
http://www.sluniverse.com/forums/Topic1803-1-1.aspx

Well, you can cross that group off your list of prospective communities. Don't cry, I'm sure you'll find a nice little community that's just right and in your price range, too.

I can't believe that people are actually surprised. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Many people have said that the forums will close this year. I believe in one of the responses linked back to Philip talking about the forum closure a couple years ago.

After reflecting for a while, I have come to agree with everything in this post and also have mixed feelings. The forums could be a great way to communicate with LL, but they are not, and this is because of us - the forum members. The sheer volume of redundant posts and Screaming Wednesday Monkeys makes it almost impossible to find any communication with intelligent content. Yes, some gets through - but most is lost in the shuffle.

;_; *puts on her pitiful voice* Maybe the furries will take me in. Surely living in a tree should be affordable enough. ;_;

Over an hour now and that damn comment still hasn't shown up. Feh.

Thinking more on this...of all the forums to be closed, closing Classifieds makes the least sense to me. Why would LL close that one? It generates no drama whatsoever and is a valuable service to sellers and buyers.

Feh again.

It has happened for a few other games. UO turned their boards over to Stratics. EQ has been on again off again with their boards for, well, as long as its been around. DAOC never had official public boards.

How often have you seen someone concede a point in any of these flame-filled threads?

There's a tendency (both online and in America in general these days) where people think it's a positive characteristic to "stick to your guns" rather than admit you made a mistake or concede to strong or irrefutable evidence that conflicts with their views or agenda (look no further than the U.S. President). The Internet seems to attract the same sort of self-righteousness, and I don't see it going away anytime soon.

Show me examples of where people have compromised in a thread, and for each of those I can probably show you ten threads that were just a big waste of time, detrimental to the overall community, and probably destroyed many potential friendships in the process.

Disagreement isn't surprise. I'm not surprised; I disagree with the decision, though. Raucous is better than silence. Even if it is a small percent of the population, it's still a cross section.

Pleas, no one need tell me that it's LL's place to do what they want with. I know and agree with that sentinent. I do not however, agree with their decision.

Wow, Lecktor, I had forgotten all about that thread - thank you for posting it.

Umm, did you forget that the forum classifieds are free and the inworld classifieds generate funds?