Recalls Gone in 1.7

Did anyone know this was coming? Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't recall (no pun intended) reading anything about the group officer recall function being removed. Apparently the thing to do now in order to remove an officer is to contact support, and wait for them to take care of it, until LL gets a new automated system in place.

While I'm thrilled that LL is finally giving some thought to revamping group management, come on. Couldn't we have had some notice? Just last week, I talked to a Linden about a problem with an officer in one of my groups who's been causing trouble for the better part of a year since having been errantly promoted by another officer, and not a word of the upcoming change was mentioned. The line I got was the same one I got a few months ago when this jackass was suspended over his antics, but not removed from office, "Linden Lab does not get involved in group politics." When I explained the situation, the history, and the fact that the group was way too big for recalls to work, the Linden advice was to start a new group without this person, and be done with it.

So, finally, that's what we did. We spent the past week informing our membership (more than 120 people) of the change through IM's, notecards, vote announcements, and our group forum website, and inviting all the members to the new group. Needless to say, the change was a ton of work, and it hasn't been without its problems. The transitional period has been understandably rocky.

The final phase was tonight, when I kicked out all the members from the old group. This not only caused some panic among people who for whatever reason hadn't read all the numerous announcements, but it unavoidably caused every memeber of the group to get up to around a hundred or so E-mails about all the individual ejections.

It wasn't until after all of that that the other officers and I discovered to our horror that the recall button is now gone. I then spoke at length with one of the liaisons on duty to find out what was going on, and he informed me of the change.

Why the hell couldn't they have told me the change was coming when I spoke with them last week? Why in the name of all that is decent and holy would they advise me to rock the foundations of a long established group with a large membership by going through a change to a new group when it was completely unnecessary? Why couldn't they just say "Wait a week, contact support, and we'll remove the offending officer for you"? Why? It makes no sense.

It's very rare that I actually get angry with LL, but I'm certainly angry about this. The amount of work we had to do to change over to the new group was mind boggling, and it will be several weeks before all the members settle in to the point where we can relax and call the transition finished. All that, just to find out it was completely pointless. Can you see the smoke coming out my ears right about now?

I wasn't able to find a formal louder announcement but in the midst of the archives, I did find this...

/invalid_link.html

Hope things get better for you and your group, Chosen.

If I recall (pun intended), there was a fierce debate over the Officer Recall function not too long ago. Basically, the function "was not serving its intended purpose," and "was just becoming a grief tool for overthrowing (un)popular officers or taking an open group by rout."

See here:
/20/c2/45883/1.html

It was a good move to protect Stakeholders like Anshe and Prokofy from being recalled from their own groups every week. It just makes groups even more useless for the rest of us.

Thanks Torley. I'm not sure if that link makes me feel better or worse. It's 5 months old, so clearly this was planned for a long, long time. The fact that it's been in the works for so long, but inworld staff wasn't even aware of it when they were advising me last week is disgusting. I can't believe that two sentences in 5 months is all we get. You'd think at the very least it would be in the release notes if nothing else, but it's not. Things like full bright, 45 sim fps, and HUD have been the talk of the town for weeks now, but not a word about this since May? Something is very wrong. Okay, I get that it's not as glamorous as some other new features, but it's still a huge change, and obviously it's got deep impact. Rediculous.

Thanks for the link, Jeffrey. I'm not sure how I missed that one, but even if I'd seen it, I'm not sure it necessarily would have helped. Lively discussions among residents over theoretical changes they'd like to see happen all the time, and that particular one doesn't seem to define anything any more than any other. It's a bunch of people talking about what they like, dislike, want, and don't want for group management tools and philosophy. The only Linden presence in the thread is 5 months old (the same age as Torley's link) and all it says is "probably". How many "definitelies" that were announced 5 months ago are still "definitelies" today? How was anyone to expect that a "probably" from 5 months ago would actually happen?

Considering tall, wrap around shopping complexes, you just described telehubs.

I ran into this because I had to remove an officer from my landholding group like a day after 1.7 dropped. As of right now, you have to call LL directly to have an officer removed, and you have to be the one that created the group in the first place.


(Hi Cyn! *waves*)

Actually, LL will remove the founder of a group and change the founder's name on the group page if another officer is a good friend of the Lindens.

*shakes head

*speaks in a low angry voice;

Why oh why have they stopped making global announcements in world?

Has LL grown so large now that the right hand, doesn't know what the left hand is doing?

Did someone at LL decide; the subscribers/players no longer have a voice in policy changes?

Will we even see an apology for the lack of an announcement, was it just another oversight?

*shakes head I just don't know.

What I do know however is it would of been nice to of heard about this. Again I agree with Eboni I can see how it would benefit some major investors in LL.

Chosen; That just sucks, I have been there and its a huge job and no it never goes smooth. I will never understand why LL decides to keep some information to themselves that affects its world on a global level.

Mar

Wow Chosen, I'm really sorry. This is our fault -- I thought everyone at Linden was aware we were making this change, and it should have been in the release notes. No excuse, other than too much going on.

Once we weather all the bumps with getting 1.7 working smoothly, Karen and I are going to work on coming up with a better update and release communication system as it's very clear things could be greatly improved.

I call shenanigans on that one. LL has had this policy for some time. They would kick people out of groups and have group founder names changed on a whim from their close friends.

Thanks Robin. Your apology and your assurance that LL is taking this seriously mean a lot to me. This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Consider me angry no longer.