I can't believe Linden, this time!

Reading the forums, viewing the indignation of everyone afflicted by the new version of Second Life, all the changed features, all the new bugs, all the unexpected problems... It's astonishing to me!

I simply cannot understand why Linden Lab did not create a miniature version of the service running a test version of the software so that everyone concerned could come in and test the new features and find the new bugs and voice their opinions on everything. I mean, how handy would that have been?

What Linden should have done was create, now stay with me here, they should have made a "Preview Grid." This "Preview Grid" could have let folks come and get a taste of the new experience and offer feedback on everything so that the service could have had everyone's needs and expectations taken into account before launch. Linden Lab could have used a "Version 1.6 Feature Feedback Forum" to collect thoughts and organize their efforts.

But, clearly, this didn't happen. Tut, tut, Linden Lab. You could have tried harder to involve your community and customer base through rigorous testing and an open method of communication. Guess it was just asking too much.

If we could work in the preview grid for a month and get to keep all our changes when 1.n+1 goes live then I would have spent a lot more time there.

(*wink* object import/export in 1.7 *nudge*)

Yea, and if that did what you said, maybe they could credit those residents that did involve themselves in the "preview" in the Help->About Second Life... I can't believe they didn't do any of this!

So would I. But I couldn't, so I didn't, so it's my own damn fault for not contributing more to its development. It's like voting. If you don't go to the polls you don't get to complain about the outcome.

Wait.......oh........um.....eh......wha?

(just remembering it is technically still April Fool's Day)

Heh, Path, I'd have posted my Modest Proposal on any other day, anyway. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Hey, bravo to all y'all for not going postal on these posters.

Yeah those Lindens, I don't know wuts up with them.

What about those of us who DID visit this mysterious "preview grid" you speak of, tried to use it, crashed dozens of times, sent bug reports, and now find that those problems were not fixed?

I dunno, what about you?

Well, personally, I'm stuck with a product that I am currently paying $125 a month to play, and I can barely stay in-game long enough to put my land up for sale to be able to tier down.

Sounds like a personal problem. I'd chat with support and see if they can't get you fixed up. I wish it were as clear cut and epidemic as you seem to want it to sound, but SL is running fine for me on both Macintosh and Windows installations.

Enabran..what's your point?? You had every opportunity to post right here in the forums about your grievances. But did you? NO. On Friday around 10:15 PM you COULD have posted something like:



But did you? NOOOOOOOOooooooo. You sat quietly on your couch and ate doritos while watching Battlestar Galactica. So no complaints out of YOU.

What?

Aimee, you have twisted my satire in upon itself like a great mobius strip upon which the mind crawls like a great army of ants into an infinity of confusion.

Hat's off to you, madam. Hat is off.

*Highfives* There really should be a "best of" for the forums.

Bump

When you've been here through many, many major upgrades you'll realise that (a) what the Lindens put live isn't necessarily exactly the same version as the last preview version and (b) the preview test doesn't ever actually reflect what happens on the real grid.

This happens every single time they release a major update and has ever since I've been here (it was 1.2 when I joined). The difference this time was that they had a preview grid open for nearly a month but, when you look at it, the last release candidate was only actually given 24 hours on the preview grid (the first release candidate had some major bugs in it, so giving a second release candidate such a short testing time after "fixing" those bugs seems very short-sighted to me). 24 hours isn't enough time, especially with LL's track record of fixing one thing and breaking 3 at the same time, and really means that much of the preview testing was a waste at the end of the day.

In 2 weeks time we'll be on 1.6.3 (or something like that) and the less serious bugs will still be here, left to rot with all the others that have built up over time. That's the way it goes unfortuantely. I do wish it was different this time, but things appear to be playing out the same way they always do.

I know I should be bug reporting but I can't even describe the stuff that has been happening since 1.6. When I resize things or use "Edit Linked Object" something wonky happens. Yes wonky. I can't use wonky in a bug report but thats what happens. So I just hope smarter people are getting the complaining done more articulately.

Oh you get the wonky bug as well? I thought it was only me.

I say "tut, tut" to you sir! "Tut, tut" to you!

Your foresight, Enabran, is as miniature as the miniature test version that you propose sir. Aimee's proposal of a Preview Preview Grid is likewise premature.

Where is the "Teen Preview Grid"?!

Will someone PLEASE think of the buggy children?

-- Neal Stewart

LICE! THEY HAVE LICE! *rips at his head*

Enabran Templar you are simply a genius! What an idea. A preview grid. Who would have thought?!



If there HAD been a Preview, RC2 would have been what went out live. In theory, you could look carefully at the build number and notice that RC2 (build 15) was the same build number that went live.

Also, had there been a preview grid, you would have noticed that RC2 was up for more than 24 hours. But much more importantly, during that short period there were more people in aggregate on preview (over a 100 for an extended period of time) than almost the previous 3 weeks combined. While we did get bug reports during that RC2 period, none of them were of sufficient severity to hold the publish. Does that mean there were not any? No, they just were not found. When we aren’t finding any new bugs, how long should we wait before launching an update?



True, but given all our options in the realm of testing a release, can you come up with a better alternative? If you can, please let us know! Until we come up with a better way of testing releases, we will continue using the preview grid as our primary method of testing our new releases.

Questions that we need to ask ourselves as a community are:How do we get more people on preview? How do we get more people on preview testing? How do we test everything? What incentives can we build into preview to make it more appealing to a wider audience? Preview residents represent only is 0.3% of our entire population base. Let me know your thoughts.

Enabran,

Quite possibly, best.post.evar.

Gene Poole rated you positively ("satire is teh funny!".

Chris,

Definitely, if there's some not-too-tricky way (dev-wise) to allow manual transfer of current main-grid inventory to the preview, and manual transfer of newly-minted objects in preview back into inventory in the "real world" (main grid), you'd probably get people using preview from the time it's open until just before the switchover.

I was in preview for two nights, for a load test (requested by you, and I had the time to spare), and to watch a film (video testing). If I'd been able to work on my projects, I'd have been there much more.

have you ever installed a Microsoft or Apple upgrade? if THEY have bugs what makes you think LL is going to find all of theirs? besides, the game is so new to me, other than the rulers when moving prims and a search feature in my inventory I haven't noticed any difference after the upgrade and am having a blast...

My thoughts is don't publish until those .3% of people have ALL their bugs squashed... look at these forums, Chris. There a lot of posts saying "XXX bug was in preview and still isn't fixed" and more posts than I can count of people crashing a few minutes after loading (like me). Just like it did for me in preview, and just like I bugged it. Did anyone contact me to make sure it was fixed for me? Because if I'm only part of the .3%, then there should, statistically ne more people like me... and there are. Look at the forums!

If only .3% of the population used preview and some of these are having problems, then when you do go "live", you're going to have an exponential amount of people suffering from the bugs that only a percentage of the .3% were having.