Town Hall Meeting

There is to be a town hall meeting at 7pm PST, which is 3am UK time. Would LL please tell me if they are planning a similar event for those who do not live in the USA? If not why not? Do we count for so little that we are not to be given the opportunity to participate in a town hall meeting at a, for us, reasonable hour?

Alexa

I get the feeling this town hall has been hastily arranged. I'm curious as to why.

I suspect the rolling out of the teen grid for one.

Yes Moopf I think so too and would have loved to be there. But no way am i getting up at 3am to attend it lol.

Alexa

I tried to file a post to the Linden Hotline asking if there were "repeaters" for this, i.e. the amplifiers to enable people to hold the same even on other sims, since if it is like any other Town Meeting, it will mass up with 40 avs, the sim will close, and it will only be possible for those 40 avs to hear the meeting. I hope they will follow the usual practice of having those repeaters available.

Among the things I'm certainly hoping to hear Mr. Philip comment:

1) Apologies for the latest patch bork-ups and an offer to credit all players with one day's subscription fee (or 3?) because of their huge inconvenience and cost, i.e. unable to play the game for days, unable to log in. And an offer to help compensate some players who took huge losses in the latest patch, i.e. those who lost all prims and builds, etc.

2) A pledge to reverse the events announcement fuckup and and a clear-cut message that clubs/entertainment/malls/Tringo events are tolerated and indeed encouraged and that LL will be working on better ways to filter the events announcements, but not at the expense of players' enthusiasm and energy for popular events.

3) An apology for crashing the land market to $2/meter over Ryan Linden's letter.

4) A reiteration of consistent LL policy to enforce the TOS promise to protect privacy by enforcing the regulation that any information not found on the player's First Life profile cannot be distributed in the game.

5) A reiteration of LL commitment to keeping the game free of anti-gay or other hate speech like ethnic hatred, hatred directed against classes of people, etc. (A *critique* of a class should not be confused with an *incitement to hatred of* a class).

6) A report on subscription numbers and an analysis of how many new players opt to buy first-land, and of these how many go on to tier up (well one can dream, can't one)

7) A pledge to fix up the holes on the voting system, by removing alts, making a statement about vote-purchasing and vote-pressuring, etc. Removing alts will mean a serious new upgrade to LL performance in which they begin to enforce their policies through ISP capturing, for voting purposes and for purposes of enforcing TOS by banning not just one player, but his alts in cases of severe and repeated offenses.

What would other people like to hear from Philip at this Town Meeting?

Its to announce my corination as king of SecondLife. Bow down to the all powerful molepeople.






oh and i almost forgot. clothes are evil.

Prok, you about covered the points most important to me. I hope that those topics are brought up by residents, and covered by Phillip tonight.

I've been thinking today about what the absolute, most important question for Philip to me is - and how I can condence that question down to 2 sentences or less (damn that's tough).

I posted in the Hotline on this: Probably my most burning question at the moment is:

Assumption: It appears that a good proportion of Beta and "oldbie" members have a strong distaste, if not outright hostility towards the service industry as it exists in SL.

By service industry, I am referring to buisnesses that produce an intangable product - such as clubs - their product being - entertainment.

Question: As Lindens, many of them are Beta and "oldbie" members as well - do they harbor some of the same feelings the "older SL community" does, and do those feelings play a part in some of the policy decisions made of late that are perceived as a detriment to the service industry?

Ultimately - the goal of my question is: Is LL intentionally trying to curb or dismantle the service industry?

I would like to see Phillip personally comment on this - even though what I have above is probably too long to ask. If I can boil the question down to something more succinct, and I have the opportunity - I may just ask it (or not - I'm still formulating my question for tonight)

Thank you for that very, very excellent post. I don't know you and your business, but you hit the nail on the head.

The oldbies have an adverse reaction to the service/club/real estate industry. I'd call real estate land sales/rentals as a service. Clubs you could put in entertainment, but entertainment is a service, adding content and enjoyment for other players.

The oldbies and the beta-testers tend to be people who produce buildings/themed sims or communities/high-end content like vehicles/scripts/etc. I think some producing skins and animations are a bit more friendly to the service/retail industries but overall I think they side more with the oldbie conent/infrastructure team if you will. This is why I started a poll about what people's RL professions are, because I wanted to see if it could explain this horrid allergy to commerce I see in the game, and this horrid allergy and lack of understanding of any kind of activity, profession, occupation, leisure etc. that isn't in the IT/computer field.

wow, I was wondering when the next town hall meeting was.

It is just silly to anounce a meeting the same day you hold it. this is something many players find important and if made aware they could plan to attend or not. I would be intrested in perticipating but I just NOW found out about the event and will not be available on such a short notice. I feel many other players are in the same position and this is discourageing.

Lindens! please anounce any important event like this BEFORE its happeneing, I mean come on a little courtesy?

Please post info on where I can find a repeator or find the town hall info.

Thanks

You're right, Trifen - but I'm just happy they're having a town hall *at all*. IMHO - Any dialog, even if its sucky dialog - is better than none

/agree - more advance notice, and friendlier times to the whole of the community are definately a good thing. Monthly townhalls at a predefined time & location might be a huge help.

Yep!

/120/10/43545/1.html

FYI, I have one set up on my land in Ambleside (56, 100) if anyone wants to listen to it there.

woot! party at Pathfinder's!

I'll bring the sheep!

And I'll bring the dip!

I think we'll also hear something about the Game Dev Competition.

Sheep Dip... yep! Definitely heading over to Pathfinder's place now!

*laughing so hard my eyes are watering*

Does the term "pipedream" mean anything to you? Here is what is going to actually happen.

1. No apologies for anything you wanted an apology for. And definitely no refunds.
2. Apologies for stuff you want fixed not an "I'm sorry" for.
3. Many sentences beginning with "We took into consideration what you wanted" and ending with the exact opposite of what you wanted.
4. Long angry posts.

Someone tell me if I was right. I have homework to do.

I'm not even going to touch Prokofy's operatic agenda, but here we go on your nicely worded post, Travis.

I think there's a big misunderstanding here. As an oldbie... that knows a lot of other oldbies, and is also friends with many entertainment related folks, I think you assumption that Beta and oldbies hating entertainment is completely wrong. The times problems have been raised have had to do with entertainment organizations not being good, neighborly community members.

Going back to the situation in Federal, other residents of Federal were fed up that the club there (I'm not looking to rehash the argument) was lagging the entire sim, despite only owning 25% of the sim or so. Other residents were completely unable to hold events of their own, or build, or anything in the sim. Land was also a much rarer commodity these days.

Now, I see a similar problem. Many Tringo sites, for example, cause a large amount of lag by the worshipping at the altar of TRAFFICVS, who recently conquered Dwellnor. In one of my friend's case - who is a relative newbie (several months old) - she is practically unable to move on her own land most of the day. Add to this that these machines are set to shout at a distance of 96 meters, constantly... it makes other sim residents understandably mad. Its unfair for one land owner to abuse resources and affect the other residents and community members.

Again, oldbies don't have a problem with Tringo. In fact, I think its FANTASTIC that an SL game has gotten so popular, that its hitting RL! That is quite an accomplishment for both Kermitt and SL itself.

The problem is the worshipping of Dwell/Traffic/whatever. By having that system in place, in encourages unhealthy completition (heaven forfend Popular Places goes down for a day or two... THE SKY IS FALLING!), and spamming of the events list and abuse of sim resources and neighbors / fellow citizens.

Just my 2 cents. Regards, my friend.

-Flip

well all i get is error message when i try to log in. now what is the problem.

Thanks, Flip You're definately going to know a lot more about "oldbie" members that I could - just from my age. I admit I could be completely off base here. I know the forums aren't neccesarily representative of the community as a whole.

Your opinions are appreciated - and I agree with some of what you said, and differ with some. I definately didn't mean to imply that *all* "oldbie's" have a problem with the service industry as I call it - more that if you were to break the community into major groupings by age - more oldbie's seem to have the least amount of patience with the club-going/owning folks than any other group. And - even if my impression is correct - "oldbies" have every right to feel hostility.... everyone is entitled to their opinion.

My concern, however - is stemming more from the latest changes and problems as a whole - it just feels like as a club owner, I'm being hit from all sides with issues I can't control.

Again, that could be a completly faulty impression on my part. I think I'm still going to pose the question - but I'm completely prepared for an answer showing just how wrong I am

Travis

I think a balance must be reached. I must admit, I'm glad not be a club owner these days. It used to be clubs were the only social game in town. In addition to the changes in the SL climate, the competition from Tringo must be especially tough. I think more robust event tools are necessary - perhaps not listing any events on the list until a keyboard is entered or a category selected. This would go a long way to stop gaming of the system, yet, people who wanted clubs could find clubs, people who want tringo could find tringo easily... yet rarer events, like snail racing... how would they get promoted?

Here's one thing I've never really understood about clubs. I've always felt that ALL of SL... anywhere... can be a club, just without the flashy lights. You could be in the middle of a meadow and start up the dance animations with a group of friends and a Live365 stream, even over a year ago. Does that count as a club? At the same time, I agree what separates SL even more than its technology is the real social relationships built; its definitely what kept me here. In ActiveWorlds a decade ago, I barely got to know anyone long term. I felt like I was floating through the space alone.

I'm not opposed to the environment of disco balls and scantily clad people - in fact, believe it or not - I've attended a fair amount of these in RL and SL. Its the sheer number that has come to astound me. Back when I started, there was really one club; Elite. This was when there were... what... 40 sims maybe? There may have been a second club somewhere I'm forgetting... let's say Phantasie Isle popped up (which was more of a beach party than a club, but we'll count it). So let's say 2 major clubs out over about sixty sims within a few months of me starting. That's 1 per every 30 sims. The ratio now is, of course, much higher. Throw in tringo as another major cause of lag creation, and it soars even higher. I do hear stories, somewhat constantly, of people moving into a sim, a club/tringo spot moving in next door, and ruining the experience for the person who just wanted a simple existence. A solution has to be found to allow for both; let the club have a few events a day where they use almost the entire simulator resources... but please, not 24/7. That's just not fair to other residents.

I don't have any simple solutions to these problems, and if you read my posts throughout my posting career, you'll see I want everyone to have fun here in their own way. I also call it the way I see it... and yes, I hate the side of me these forums bring out sometimes, just like all of us. I think what we have to accept is that there will always been tweaking of the SL climate in trying to strike a balance that's best for most of the citizens. I don't envy's Linden Lab's position... as its impossible to make all the people happy all of the time. These problems and discussions aren't new at all - again, I point back to the discussions of the Federal days!

Cheers,

-Flip