Top Picks abuse

I think that's a wonderful idea.

And my name is "Dallas", not "maybe someone."

I stand corrected!

Sorry Jack, feeling fiesty tonight. You're right about mature content, though.

Me too!

With all due respect, Marcos, I think probably their gut game dev reaction to "what is cool" is at least *in part* related to their need to *sell their game*.

And that's OK. I'm all for them selling their game. If they sell their game, then they'll have the money to make it better, I guess (although that's not always the case). It's great for them to be able to tell a RL journalist from a RL architectural magazine, as they did this month, that their game has RL-type magnificent architecture in it, like AMORD.

I don't care how they pick their top picks. Let them keep it. Damn shame the entitlement-style clamouring masses got it killed.

This is like the Russian anecdote. You know that American idea of "keep up with the Jones"? Well, the Russian is more like this: "If my neighbour has a cow, I don't envy him and just wish I had a cow, and try to work hard so that I, too, can buy a cow, instead, I sneak over there at night and kill his cow dead, so then we both don't have any cows." This is what socialism does to you.

It's kinda funny that the actual top dwell list, the Linden picks, the Linden rewards for dwell are all different, well, perhaps they overlap a bit. But to update it every two weeks which is what Barnes and Nobles does, would require staff time they can't justify on that exercise.

It's a function best assumed by players themselves. If players want a non-commercialized, non-favoritism, non-skewed favorites, they have to figure out how to democratically organize a ratings list themselves, hopefully using something not as ugly and breaky as those Linden-created voting machines.

We have been doing this at Club Fame, by having contests for best 512-build, best waterfall, etc. This is what players have to do, to get recognition of what they themselves value.

I don't wish happy holidays to anyone. My alt in real life is Scrooge.. here it's curmudgeon - or have you forgotten? So much for that miniscule amount of respect.

Well I won't argue with that. I suffer no illusions about what SL is.

This is directed at those that complained about the TOP PICKs

GREAT JOB thanks a million for getting somthing that really had nothing to do with you removed.

I used the top picks to get a feeling for what the climate was at the LL main office.

It was also a Reflection of the mindset of LL and their employees as to what they thought was neat or kewl and it changed on varying occasion.

It had nothing to do with advertising it was more so a hey I work for LL I think this is really a fantastic build and I can freely express my opinion on a seperate medium that will not directly affect the players. So I take it if they are a Linden they cant have an opinion now or its "Favortism"

For those of you that didnt understand this thank you for being true blue Nieve.

It saddens me that the masses follow the next pied piper and this is a true blue example of a stupid lynch mob at its best.

So keep it up. Whats the next working feature that you want to destroy?

Im gonna hush before I say something to get me banned from the forums but this really erks me to no end again Great job!!!!!!1

Have a nice day!!!!!!

Shadow

I'm crushed.

this is true. but there are other ways. like they do talk back. i haven't expressed anything clearly in this thread, much less gotten this point across.

This is so not going to make sense... just to explain...I'm quoting Sio's response to me from another thread so as not to hijack that one.

Surely, rather than remove yet-another-feature because someone said it was unfair, we could just rename it 'things the Lindens like' or something?

Personally, I've opened Top Picks once in a year. When someone told me they were on it. I don't see how it takes away from anyone anywhere personally. I somewhat doubt people go straight for Top Picks, find one of the venues and stay there for their Second Life.

I really don't think it's unfair. At all. It's just being blown up out of proportion. It's just someone's choices. I suppose the only difference is that it's right there in the UI, and I suppose you could argue that the name is misrepresentative. But I really think there is no conspiracy or evil intent on the Lindens part.. I think they're just a bit lax about updating it.

Just seems a shame to me that yet another feature (albeit one I dont use) is going to disappear because of the concerns of a few. Because you just know that whatever comes in to replace it will be debated to death, implemented, debated to death, scrapped, replaced, debated to death....

Actually, I did consider that as a solution ...



Well, my response earlier was mostly cynicism, but if they have it there, it should be updated regularly, or at very least, have dates to show when each 'attraction' was last visited, so people can see how outdated, or not, they are.



It's a pointless feature anyway... the Lindens have the ability to put their pics in their profiles, just like the rest of us.

I don't know why they just didn't decide to rotate the picks every month or two. I don't use Top Picks because it is mostly stale, but taking it away seems a bit extreme. It would be easy enough to have an item fall off after a certain period and not allow it to go back up.

I agree.

Robin said LL will replace it with another arrangement, any ideas?

I'd love to say yes, Katy, but people will just inevitably say 'it'll be gamed' and dismiss it, rather than try and refine and rework it. The problem is, anything can be gamed.

Personally, I kind of miss the old voting of builds system. Sure, it wasnt perfect and there wasnt real life cash riding on it at the time, but I'm still sure that ultimately something voting based could be reworked in some way that is beneficial, even if it's only to provide a 'most voted' list of places and not tied to any awards or anything.

At the very least, people actually had to GO there at least once a day to vote. Yes it can be gamed by groups of people, but the fact is that if they're actually visiting the build to vote, then it is popular!

I think that an individual plot by plot or build by build system of vote metering for a list is still way more current and valuable than a stagnant manual picks list.

I think the other possibility is adding into the UI some random element of picks from residents profiles. Again, it could be gamed by people stacking the odds, but at least they'd be filling in their profile picks which they rarely do now

I dunno. But I do think that ultimately it should be residents decisions to make it truly useful. But I do think it will be gamed. Whatever it is. It's just the way it goes.

You know Kris, I totaly agree with you here. But in some representitive cases we are considered trolls thus our opinions, because we have sunk to the level of beating others with sticks like they beat us with, are not taken seriously.

I am still in utter dismay that the runny nose sniveling cry babies have once again whined and bitched enough about a feature to have it removed. Those of us begging for LEGITIMATE refinement get pushed to the way side as the old saying goes the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Im tired of that damn wheel getting oil let the fucker squeek.

What I want to know is whats next on the Snot nosed whine list.

No more Money?
No more building?
No more sex?
No more Politics?
No more image uploads?
No more clothes?

The thing that I really dont understand is this miniscule vocal of people in the forums dictate what happens in world. I dont care what anyone says this is a prime example of what several have said all along. This minority of people on the forums have a massive impact on what happens in world.

Why because we are informed, we know about town halls we can be there to bitch moan and generally whine about everything. This minor voice has the same access to all the tools the rest have but if the rest dont know they dont know to fight back.

The true simple players don't come here they dont delve in the politics of changes upgrades and resources.

But they get screwed every time some meglamaniac with an agenda comes on the forums bitching and whining and getting stuff changed.

Im sorry if some of you think I have went off the deep end on this but to me this was kind of the final straw of stupidity.

If we continue to let inane banter and private whining campaigns change the face of our world then the world will be molded in the image of morons.

Why because LL will think thats what people want and will succumb to the whining and bitching of ignorance.

Wake up people and if you dont smell the coffee at least smell the stintch off the shit that is heading our way with this constant berevement of whining ingrates.

Sincerely, Shadow

I agree with Kris that the voting system could work. Then a Linden prepared list could show the build leaders, similar to the ratings leaders lists, and that way the members would be indicating which builds are worth visiting.

I think the push was for reform, not elimination, and from the passionate sentiment of your post I think you would agree that reform works for us all.

I am sorry, no matter how many times I read this... your point just does not hold weight.

For one, the only one whining here is you. No where in the thread did anyone say "Kill the top picks! Die die die!" Sure the Linden decided to take it out on the next update, but did they ever say it was not coming back? I think not. This thread was not started to kill a feature, it was started to make it better... more enjoyable and fair for everyone. I do not see where this rabbit you pulled from your hat is... perhaps you need to read the entire thread again.

Second, As you plainly see, I do not post much in the forums. I am sure things are decided by those who do post alot, it seems to be a particluar group. However, bringing that up in this post does not add any weight to your transparent point.

Please, most everyone else here has posted an idea and contributed something useful to the thread. Why do you not do the same? That is, unless you do not like conversing with .

Quite an amusing post though, kudos to that. I needed a good laugh.

Vade, if there was a "Top Picks" section when you joined, you havent been in SL long enough

-Old Fart

Maybe so, but I do see what is happening now. That is my concern. No, I am not some beta SLer... I am not even a year into SL yet. However, there are issues I think need to be fixed, this just happened to be one of them. I used the Top Picks when I was new, not because it said anything Linden about them, but because they were "The" Top Picks, so I thought. I can tell you with no doubts in my mind that many new players think the Top Picks are the cat's pajamas, or the bee's knees if you will. I see no problem with having the Top Picks in place, but I do think it needs to be updated frequently, and places that are listed need a TTL (time to live - this is not the correct use for the accronym, but it works) before they are listed again. This would open doors for everyone besides new players. Almost every time a new place is listed in TPs, I go and check it out. I am sure if it were updated more frequently, others would follow suit.

I agree with the need to refresh and update. Heavenly hair salon has been on the list forever which I am sure has brought a lot of business to its owner, however I think Lash has some dynamite hair that she sells that many people like to wear. Why not rotate and give Lash and other vendors a shot at the extra business that results from being on that list?

We've realized for a while that keeping Top Picks current was becoming increasingly difficult as the world grows. As an interesting list for newbies it has had value, and we tried to make sure there were places on the list for clothing, hair, fun games and so on. But in the long run there are two problems with it, neither of which have to do with forum complaints.

The first is that there's a perception that it's unfair -- that the picks are builds by Linden alts, or Linden friends, or whatever. Not true, but hard to refute. The second is that it's a very passive way to introduce newbies to great builds, and on top of that it doesn't come from the SL community -- it's a Linden choice.

There's an idea we have percolating which is just starting to take shape. It will essentially let volunteers from SL post things they're making, or they think is fun, in a place where newbies can see it and IM the volunteer if they want to go there. The volunteer would then greet them when they come in to SL, take them to the place in question, and show them around.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done on this idea yet -- but it seems like an interesting thing to explore and in the long run more effective than Top Picks and certainly more fair.

Separately, for those of you who like to know what the Lindens are thinking, I've asked everyone to please use the favorite pics feature in their profiles. Hopefully you'll start seeing some entries showing up soon.

I mentioned this in another thread on this topic but I will again here... I think a really simple and effective replacement would be to have top picks show the places the most people have added as a pick in their profile. That feature is pretty underused and this would encourage people to use it. And it wouldn't have the pain in the ass factor of voting, because if you always wanted to vote for the same place you just wouldn't change your picks. That would also make it so that everyone's votes count so there can't be cries of favoritism as there will be with any voting panel. Maybe have something like a vote booth that can be clicked to add a location to your picks in one easy step, and to remind people to vote for their favorite places.