About the new login 'queue' system?

I seem to have missed the explanation of this, because people keep telling me I'm not having login problems, but that this is 'normal service'.

So, with apologies if this has been brought up and done to death already, but what is the deal with this? Is this a temporary measure or the shape of things to come? If it's temporary, how long for? Do we have any kind of date or commitment to sort this?

At the moment, and admittedly without any further information, my reaction to it is that it is absolutely and totally unacceptable even as a temporary measure. You simply cannot treat paying customers like this. If I can expect a dozen retries and an average of 45 minutes to get online, then this is without the doubt the final straw that will push me out of SL. I can put up with a lot, but not this.

Especially given that I still have to relog every other teleport. That's going to be fun, huh? 45 mins to login.... tp to where you want to be for a half hour event... tp borks as usual. Logout. 45 mins to login....

So anyone who knows anything, Lindens included, please chime in and lemme know, because I want to move fast on the sim sale if I need to. Kthxbye.

Supposedly we are on a queue system where they only let in a certain amount of people at a time it's supposed to be fixed sometime this week.

Basically LL have run out of poly-filler and can't fill the cracks any more. The system as it currently stands would appear to be under a constant load that it simple cannot take, hence this 'solution'. There is some serious remedial work to be done on hardware setup (and software, but that's a different story) here, which I seem to remember people saying (me included) many months ago as well. Basically it's in a real state and I'm not sure LL really know what the problem is as they spent two days resolving it last week and got no further forward - that's worrying as you would really believe they should know straight away which part of the system is giving the problem.

What makes me laugh the most is that Philip still seems to believe that the system as it currently is is scaleable. Really? Honestly? Don't be ridiculous! Each issue proves further how un-scaleable this is in its present state.

perhaps i'm on a priority list (which seems very reasonable to me), but login takes me one try, rarely two, and it takes anywhere from 30 secs to 1 minute. usually 30 secs.

haha. I have NEVER, EVER, taken 30 seconds to log in. 2 mins or so before all this crap. Now up to an hour, and never less than about 10 or 15 mins.

granted a few days ago, i think just before new years, i was experiencing the same thing as you. i didn't even bother to sit around to see if i could actually log in at all. but the last few days have been perfect.

perhaps it is a geographically based problem?

I agree with ya, and pretty much always have done on these issues. It seems obvious from the new bugs they introduce with each point release that the code is dire and that they really don't know what the net effect of changes they make are going to be.

I have never believed that SL will amount to anything much more than it already is; it isn't THE or even A metaverse, and it certainly isn't going to become the next www. It's a game. And not even a very good one at that, barring the basic concept itself. Any other game that was as flaky and bug ridden as SL would be universally condemned.

And despite the number of people on the forums who really do confuse me by saying that we don't have any right to expect any given level of service from LL, I'm afraid I do. I think the basic ability to log into a usable service is about the least we can expect.

Consider this; now I'm not trying to say that my getting into SL is any more important than anyone who pays less, before anyone starts on me, but this is 'my SL', as far as I am concerned...

I pay - a lot - to play on my private island. I pay the equivalent of just over 6 bucks a day for this, in fact. And for the last week or more, I haven't been able to log in within a reasonable time limit more than just a few times. And yet I won't get any kind of compensation for it, because strictly speaking, my island is available, and that's what we're paying for... not the ability to log in, or to actually expect to be able to use our accounts or anything... just that your land is available in world (yeah, I know that it's not even really the land you're paying for as a rule, but I'm talking about a private island in this case, so it's not tier related as such).

It's pretty simple; without the ability to log in when I want to, I have no reason to have a sim and thus pay 6 bucks a day. Without the sim, I have little reason to be in SL; it's what I 'do' here.

Now I just want to reiterate that your mileage may vary; you may have paid 9.95 for life, you may pay 600$ a month for 3 sims, but undoubtedly you play SL the way you want to play it - so don't start telling me what I should or shouldn't expect out of my Second Life. This is simply the way I view it; basic principle being: I pay for something ... I expect to be able to use it as and when I want. If I can't, well then I guess I won't pay for it any more!

And frankly I just don't get those people who respond with comments about not having any right to expect any given level of service, nor do I understand those people who jump on anyone who tiers down, sells up or moves on because they're not getting what they want from the experience. So if you want to reply to this just to berate me for my 'unreasonable' expectations for a basic return on my investment or to insult me for threatening to sell up and leave, do me a favor and don't bother, ok?

Other people might have enough money to just blindly throw it at LL and expect zero in return, but I'm afraid I want something back for what I pay. And as of this ridiculous new login system, I'm most definitely not getting what I pay for.

Yer not going are ya

The new Queue is a pain, admittedly, sometimes it takes me 3 mins sometimes 10 to log in, I don't know how much of this tip is true, but it always appears to work, have the person that is trying to log in's profile open as they try.. don't ask cos I really don't know.. but we... it may just be coincidence it works when our lil group try it

It may be a factor, I guess, but it certainly isn't the whole reason. A friend from NJ started trying to log in at exactly the same time as me yesterday, and actually got in almost the same time as me when we eventually did, about half hour later.

The central problem is the asset server. And the asset server is central; that's the problem. (Kind of zen, isn't it?)

I can't quote my source, but as I understand LL is aware of certain roadblocks to scalability.

Making the asset serving system distributed poses a whole new slew of obstacles to be ironed out. Still, I believe that it's necessary for Linden Lab to eventually give up control completely and basically open source the standards for SL to go worldwide mainstream. -- It's the only way to truly make SL scalable to a global system - let individuals run their own servers, essentially, like the Internet.

The other major obstacle to scalability, I see, is dipute resolution. Considering LL sponsored the State of Play conference in its second year last fall, they seem to be well aware of the gravity of this issue. (Granted, they don't necessarily seem quick in altering the system.)

It's not the asshat server that's died ya know. It's the DB server, two different machines. The asset server is in it's current state relatively scalable (thanks to the implementation of the squiddies), but the DB server is most certainly not. I think what's happened is, LL's said - 'Look at the asset server, we have to fix that, now', and forgotten about the other central server - the DB server.

-Adam

I think another big roadbock to scalability has to be the number of avatars you can stuff into a given area at a time and still have it usable.

Can you imagine Philips prediction of 2 million regular users under the current architecture? Heh. There would have to be thousands of sims. Tens of thousands, in fact.

Adam, you're absolutely right. I sorta grouped the DB server in with the asset server, when in fact, they are seperate entities that are both centralized.

I disagree. Actually, how many sims there are is fairly scalable - perhaps a modification to the map features, but that's basically a high-level change and I wouldn't be too worried about having to modify that.

For that matter, the map's functionality really should be changed soon. It's getting laggier and laggier. At the very least, it could be divided into logical / geographical sections.

I know. But thats not what I was saying. I was referring to the fact that currently your average sim keels over with more than about a dozen people in it. Even if you allow for 30 to 40 all in the same sim at the same time, at which point it's usually down to a couple of fps, the fact is you would need a ridiculous number of sims.

It kinda amuses me that in a world where the emphasis is supposed to be on community, it's virtually impossible to have any kind of decent sized get together. Hell, if you're in a sim where even half your neighbors happened to be home you're in trouble.

Have you tried getting on with an av with little or no inventory? I just tried that and got in super fast (10 seconds). When I reduced my main av's inventory (cleared trash/lost found/deleted old landmarks/duplicate copiable items), I started to see that I could get in faster (under one minute compared to 3-5 minutes before the cleaning.

Maybe it is a coincidence, though. Anyone else seeing this?

See half my problem is my inventory is the size of a VERY very VERY long piece of string, anyone that's seen it just says WHOA!... but I can't get rid of all my clothes

Me too.

BUT... and I might be being overly simplistic here... why can't they let me log in my avatar and play, and load my inventory afterwards?!

If the problem is to do with fetching a crapload of crap that I happen to have from the servers, then I'd be far happier to at least be IN Second Life and eventually receive a 'your inventory has now loaded' message than just to sit there with a non responsive client watching a loading bar.

Yup I agree, loading inv after we log in would solve ALOT of login issues I believe, it's ok for everyone to say clear out your inv etc etc... I paid good money for all my shiznit!

It's only a theory!

There is a lot of junk that can be deleted without killing your good stuff. Have you taken a look at your trash and lost and found folders?

Finally, I don't think this applies to clothing. I recall sometimes seeing a message after logging in that said "Your clothing is still loading, but don't worry, you aren't naked".

Hehe I wasn't aiming that at you hun , LOADS of ppl have seen my inventory and said OMFG delete that stuff! no wonder you don't log in for hours! and yeaaaaap empty trash daily and lost and found, sorted out my landmarks and notecard folder and even gave away some stuff, and raffled it off at our charity auction...

I forgot to put a smiley after the exclaimation point in my last post. I know better than to ask a woman to give up her clothes!

Well, then, maybe the other part of the faster login is being in California, although I don't know if the login servers are in San Francisco or not.

They just hate the UK... I do too it's all gravy

I've solved this problem by not even logging on. Seriously, cant you people live without SL for a couple of days? (Ok, dont answer that, rhetorical question...)

*gasp!*

are you MAD!

No well really, I just stayed on yahoo and voice conferenced.. then I actually did RL stuff

I AM going to answer that Eggy...

That is NOT the bloody point and you know it. Of course we CAN live without it. The point is, I'm paying to use it and can't use it when I want to.

I just don't get the attitudes here... I'm sure it has to be an 'I'm alright Jack' kinda thing.

If you were paying for web hosting and couldn't view your website or update your content, are you going to say something to your web host or just say 'oh well I wont use it for a couple of days or however long it takes'. Mind you, if your webhost were LL, they'd say 'tough shit. your website is there. you just cant access it.'

Yeah, yeah. I know. LL arent an ISP. We dont deserve anything. We should just throw money at them because Philip is god and have no right to expect nothing in return because it'll all turn out alright in the end. And we should all STFU whining.

uhuh. Well I am whining, because I am fucked off with the service I'm getting - or lack thereof, I DO believe I have a right to expect something for my money and I will sell up and move on unless it gets better and pretty damned quick.