An issue like a LL security breach is EXACTLY WHY we DO need the forums!!

If SLer's information becomes available due to an exploit, we ABSOLUTELY do need an official forum to discuss issues and experiences with other residents. ...If we did not have the forums when this breach took place:

A) I would not know there was an breach of my personal info & possibly credit info until Sept 9th

B) I would not know the proper steps to secure my info (IE changing my email password, changing my paypal password, cancelling my credit card)... because LL has offered no worthy information.

C) I would not know if other SLers were directly affected by the breach. I need to know the stories of users that were negatively affected by this. If LL closes the forums before this issue is resolved, I will consider it another method of LL supressing their own mistakes, and trying to make sure residents do not have a medium for understanding this problem.

While the vast majority of information about this exploit has been communicated through the blog, I agree with you. There is a certain irony in this happening on the very day they were going to close the discussion forums.

(Seems like many are cancelling their CC, maybe I should too to be safe)


Anyway, LL removing the forums is the most odd thing to be doing. Their supposed reason for removing it, is exactly what forums are for. I just dont get it. Blogging will NOT be useful, blogs are a one man sort of thing. Theyre meant to be a journal-type feature where others can read and perhaps comment, NOT for discussions. they are not useful, we NEED to be able to discuss....they say they are going to open other venues to help- wtf? This [forum] IS the best venue.

Theyre already set on it though, i guess they figure "Well the blog is the only place they will be able to get their information; they`ll have no choice but to come." Anyone have Alex Jones` calling card?

I dont read the blogs now, and i dont plan to when the forums are closed; and i certaintly wont be joining any 3rd party forums

I agree with much of that but forums also have the bad effect of every mindless idiot spreading fear, paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Amen to the Irony but the only vast majority of info was the "we have been attacked and this is what was potentialy attacked" info.

The vast majority of info was here in the forum. This is where I learned what to do about it. Linden Lab was very slow with info on what to do. The users of this board on the other hand calmed my nerves. Kudos to the residents. Long live the message board if Linden Lab know what's good for them and us.

Very little about it was communicated through the blog beyond the initial announcement. All of the explainations were posted as answers to SL Answers questions and then compiled into the email we all got.

The Linden blogs are total shit. I don't believe the info on their in the first place. I won't really ever believe anyone getting payed by the company.... furthermore, if they are censoring the responses to fit their own needs, then the words expressed will have no weight or value whatsoever to me, and im sure alot of others (over time).

These official forums are HIGHLY valuable because there is a place to read opinions. whether there are factual, or just a bunch of hooplah, or conspiracy theories, or whatever, they are VALUABLE and VALID because they are real opinions from real people. Each of us can decide what we want to believe and who we want to listen to.

And when I see a few vague sentences in the blogs about a major security breach (which was later edited with different information about the credit card vaunerability) all i can think is that LL is supressing information and protecting themselves.... and they are offering nothing to their customers on how to resolve the issue

but then when i see over 50 posts from different users about what to do about it, and how they feel about it, then I have the information I need to make my own decisions on what to do.

Should keep the forums no matter how bad they get. Just monitor them more for personal attacks, revealing someone's RL info someone may know and similar things. Need more monitors who will enforce. Ban those who insist on posting against the board rules....can have 1 week, 2 week and longer bans. I've seen that work on other forums.

Agree with you. People need this place because even though it has a bunch of negative stuff there's also good ideas of what to do in an event like this and there are moderators right? If threads get out of hand, why can't the moderator close it and if it's THAT bad just throw it in the garbage?

LL acts as if running this forum is a timeconsuming, pain-staking, chore that eats up manpower and eats up hours upon hours from their top employees. They also say it takes a large chunk of the server space?!!?! What the fuck?!? Gimme a break.
I run a forum. It takes one person to set it up and moderate it. Me.
It's not too complicated. I'm unbiased. If several users of my forum inform me to review a post that needs to be moderated, I check out the thread, and if one post needs to be remove, or a thread needs to be locked, I do it. It's that simple. One person, about 20 mins a day. How friggin hard is that?

And so friggin what if there's banter, attacks, bullshit... the forums don't need to hold a lot of weight... we are just expressing all of our opinions. And when a post breaks the rules, it's deleted. HOW HARD IS THAT?

All the forums did for this was allow people to spread a bunch of stories about stuff that never happened and for people to constantly describe the situation incorrectly.

It doesn't matter you wouldn't have known until the 9th. No matter how big your tinfoil hat is.

Double down: must be a small forum or your users are not average and behave themselves better then most.

i run a forum with 40147 posts & 23296 members with ~100 new joining a day. It is an insane task for me to try and even start to manage that, along with maintain & develop the main site.

These forums spread more misinformation then the white house.

It does take up alot of space on a database. Especially if you have over 600,000 names in the database and lots of posts. We're not talking about a small forum with under 10,000 members.

It's not just about the posts, it's about the members as well so I can agree with them on that one.

I'll miss the forums and think they should have an official forum but to each their own.

Could you imagine if a hacker hacked this forum and how long it would take to reupload it not counting the fact that most servers get errors with uploads this big so you'd either lose alot of posts, information or that tech would spend up to 24 hours just restoring it all for they'd have to copy and paste all the data lost manually if they wanted to restore everything to it's original content.

If that is the case and they are trying to free up space for data so we can actually play the game then that is fine by me.

There is no reason at all to think that the closure of these Linden operated forums would result in the complete absence of information about how to respond to something like the security breach, as the original poster seems to claim.

In the absence of these forums, information could be distributed elsewhere.

In the absence of these forums and the presence of the Linden blogs, people wouldn't just keep trying to load up forums.secondlife.com and wondering why the forums didn't appear. People would check the blogs because that's the only place there would be to check on the Linden site for current announcements. Actually one wouldn't have to bother checking because non-Linden sites would quote it on their sites.

Information about securing personal info that was provide by non-Linden sources in these forums would instead be provided on non-Linden forums. Just as non-Lindens provided the information, so would non-Lindens provide the sites where the information would be displayed.

Stories and anecdotes, advice, commiseration, etc. can be presented and viewed on non-Linden sites just as easily as they can on Linden operated sites.

Posters after my last post: all valid points.

Spend your time running all over Hell and back looking for info if you want. I found all I needed right here.

If this forum didn't exist, you'd have found the info somewhere else. If that other place announced it was going to close, folk would be whining about its impending demise instead of this one's. If these forums didn't exist, and there was a non-Linden run forum supplier(s) meeting the demand for SL information, and Linden Research created a forum, people would attack it for GOMming the forums.

Anytime one imagines doing away with the way things are, one has to go beyond simply imagining the absence of what is, and imagine what might be.

The forums i must say over the time i have been here, have not been a source of a hack. As far as data goes, get another server for em, they surely have the financial resources to do that. As far as moderating goes, im sure alot here would volunteer, but then were prolly not good enuff to be in the "inner circle"

Like ive said many times if you dont like the forums goe elsewhere...and why are you even reading them in the first place if they disgust you so bad ??

Especially after this incident, i see every reason to keep them open...i would not have taken the safety measures i needed to, had i not taken some VERY good advice here, cause the Lindens sure werent going to tell us to call our credit card companies and banks.

There is no reason except the "inner circle" just dont want us talking to each other on their dime, but then i was lured in thinking we were a community..gosh..wonder what ever happened to that concept??

But this forum did exist. If you are so damned happy with the prospect of getting your info all over the place instead of a centralized location like this what are you doing here? Obviously using the forum.

If these forums didn't exist, you'd have found your safety measures at a non-Linden run site.

When Linden Research closes the General and Sandbox and other forums that it finds unprofitable, people will turn to alternate providers of these services These sites will see increased activity, making them more useful than they are at present. Different providers will serve different segments of the SL discourse seeking audience, offering different styles of moderation, advertising content, different search facilities, and perhaps most important, different people as top posters at the different sites, allowing readers to pick the site or sites that suit them best.

Not too long after the discussion forums are closed, old timers will be telling the noobs, "When I was a noob we just had one forum site, and it was run by the Lindens, and if we said stuff they didn't like, they'd close our accounts... and we liked it!"

And i see YOUR still here..

Yes, we have all heard the Linden Logic argument. We just know in OUR minds that this is a better system and are holding to the thin thread of hope that they will admit it as well. They already know it too. Come on Lindens!! Someone decide this is worty to keep and make it your TAO project. Be our hero and show us you love us. Even Phil cannot argue with the logic of "I WANT to man the forums".