Hate blogs? Show your support!

If, like me, you're not happy with Linden Lab's decision to force us over to the use of a blog - which isn't even working properly - join the in-world group "Second Lifers Against Blogs" (SLAB) today!

It's free to join, there is no membership requirement, but maybe if things haven't improved by the next town hall, we can show up in numbers and let Philip know that we want things to change.

Lewis

Change to what?

Seriously, that's something we don't need to form up and go against Linden Labs just because you don't like the blog....

I mean come on, there's millions of blog-sites out there and suddenly you hate this one?

It's like back in 1995 where business start using internet for website where people are forced to... look it up?

What kind of support is that going to help Linden Labs? Why not start a programmer group and then show them what you can do to make it better? That would be a support.

Besides, Second Life is not a American Government that we can suddenly decides what need to be done. (cause people are the power) Linden Labs is a company that hosted a platform/game for us to goof off. If you have money to wave infront of their face, then maybe they will listen or decide it for you. (money is power in their view) but $9.95 a month is not going to cut it and listening to a great masses of Basic/Free Accounts is not going to cut it either.

The reason why people are the power because they pay their taxes.

This is not a forum for discussion of Linden Research company policy.

Part of the reason for the closure of the LR discussion forums was chronic abuse of the forum guidelines and other rules. Threads such as this which break the rules add support to the closure of the remaining ones.

i don't think he give a sh^_^t about how we would prefere to whine.
if i was at his place i wouldn't.

You are absolutely, completely, totally and utterly WRONG.

We are not discussing policy here, this is an opportunity for like-minded individuals to gather together and discuss an issue of concern or interest - just like any other group or individual may do on any subject.

The reason the forums were closed is because nobody cared enough about the community to spend time maintaining them. There was also a clear lack of understanding on the part of the resmods of what their job was, and how it should be done, which meant most rules were applied randomly, innocent users getting blasted because an individual took a dislike to them, and clear ToS violations left alone when a Linden fanboi broke them.

Lewis

"...this is an opportunity for like-minded individuals to gather together and discuss an issue of concern or interest...."


Well? How's that coming along?












(I don't think it's coming along at all, Lewis.)

My guess is that people are fearful of standing up and telling Linden Lab they are wrong, just like often happens with other controversial issues.

Besides, it's been less than 24 hours, and it's only been publicised in this thread so far. Give it a chance.

Lewis

Or maybe they don't "hate blogs".

You might as well hate "websites".

I can understand this.After being banned for 3 days for some ........

Just take a look at the latest 3-4 pages of Linden Answers. So many people complaining about the blog.

I am not alone in my dislike of blogs - which are not "websites" by the way; otherwise they'd be called websites, not blogs.

Lewis

Blogs clearly are websites; they are sites, and they are on the web. They are merely a subcategory of website with regular short updates being made pertaining to a particular subject, usually listed on a time basis. Update pages and logs have been around since the web started.

The use of the word "blog" has absolutely bog all to do with the forums closing. They could quite easily have not used a separate blog, kept all of the announcements in the Announcements forum here and still closed all of the other ones. Which would have been considerably worse.

Your obsession with "blogs", quite frankly, is drawing attention away from the actual issue, which is that there is no official area for meta-discussion of SL where the agenda is set by the users any more.

I don't believe it does; the problem is the same - as you say, nowhere for us to communicate with LL where we decide what to talk about. Whether there is no official forum of any use, or we are forced to use the blog where we have little to no choice of issues to raise, still ends up with the same solution.

It's not an "obsession". It is an aversion to something that serves no useful purpose. When the matter is solved - ie we have official forums that we can use, that are fully open and diverse, then there will be nothing on that issue to be against. Blame LL for their actions, not me for having the conviction to stand up and say "enough".

Lewis

Aye Lewis, your beef isn't really with blogs generally, it's with LL eschewing the forums in favour of their blog. Maybe your idea would draw more support if you tightened it's focus (in its description)? To rally against blogs in general is Don Quixote-like.

You should blog about it, both for irony's sake and to keep SuezanneC happy.

True. Other people's blogs I can just ignore because I have no desire to read them. However, in the case of the Linden Lab blog, it's the only way that we can keep up to date with matters of importance to SL - I can't be the only one who's noticed fewer and fewer 'official announcements' here on the forums, although plenty are being posted on the blog? Trying to force us over to using the blog more than the forums? It's no conspiracy - it's happening.



I might just do that. There you go. http://lewisnerd.wordpress.com/

I assume this makes it now acceptable for this forum.

Lewis

Nice one. Added the feed to my reader.

Don't expect a lot of traffic...

Lewis

So you admit to being a SLAB!

Fine... I have my own blog... it also happens to be on wordpress... I lose nothing because you don't read it, Lewis. However, like the other blogs out there... you MIGHT lose out by not reading it.

The way LL set this up is bad... perhaps terminally so... but don't judge all blogs by their standard. If I remember my scripture... "Judge not, lest ye be judged likewise". By the way, you are welcome to read and comment on mine. I only moderate spam... and you don't need to be registered... (though you'd best make yourself known so that I don't think you're a random spammer).

In the end Lewis. LL needed to do something. We both agree they made the wrong decision. BUT, instead of just criticising them, try suggesting an alternative. And the need to register is optional. They didn't need to activate it.

Lewis, that second entry on you blog is the most thoughtful and insightful thing I've read by you to date. Apparently you take to blogging.

I have been, for several months. Robin Linden even approached me, to ask me for my thoughts on how to run a successful forum (based on my experience with forum moderation on another MMORPG), yet all that was completely disregarded and they still shut the forums without even trying any of my suggestions.

Philip sounded genuinely surprised that he wasn't aware that people had been making suggestions on how to save the forums at the last town hall, especially that Robin had been given lots of suggestions to which he apparently wasn't made aware.

I don't know who made the decision to close the useful part of the forum - but it certainly seems like all the facts weren't shared.

Lewis

Not particularly. If you look, I've actually started very few threads, most of my posts have been replies to other people's posts.

So, in starting that blog post, I could only post my thoughts, and not respond to anyone else's thoughts and add anything - because there's nothing to respond to.

As you noted, however, my problem is not with blogs generally (as I can choose not to read them), but Linden Lab's decision to force us to sign up to a third party company, which we know nothing about, don't know if we're likely to get our email addresses sent to every spam company in existance - and STILL don't give us an opportunity to start our own discussions.

All we have left here are the remains of a once great opportunity, and a myriad of third party options varying from the fantastic to the hopeless.

Lewis

They never have shared the facts.
Thanks for answering. I was kinda semi-aware... but well...

In any case, blogs aren't bad... they're just maybe not right for the purpose. Most MMORPG companies have both a blog and a forum... but ... LL never did like criticism.

That pretty much sums it up.



That's the real problem. They take it all personally. The problem is not with individual Lindens, but the company as a whole. When I talk about "Linden Lab", its the company that is the target, whereas if I mention "Random Linden" by name, then it becomes personal.

Linden Lab is more than the collective consciousness of a group of computer programmers. It really should have a much thicker skin than it appears.

Lewis

I don't think this will help you get a job with LL that you been asking for for months now. Is it really the blog that you are upset about or the fact that they won't hire you?

The fact of the matter is, is that LL didn't listen to the general populus when we had the forums. The only times I remember any issue being heard and then resolved was the 'taxes' and the buy backs for teleport land. Both times it wasn't the forums that they listend to, it was the people in world. The protests for the taxes then a group of influential land barons having a talk with LL for the terrible mess they thought p2p was.

I'm not a LL suporter. I think they've done some pretty stupid things. Especially some of the things that they've done for certain people. But I sure am glad they haven't listened to every resident who thinks they know better.

If you want to start a pity party because LL won't change SL to exact specifications of one Lewis Nerd, go right ahead. But I doubt many will help you because of your attitude to most of the residents but mostly for the fact that there are 100s more pressing issues.

If anyone else has an actual issue, there are many different ways to get your voice heard. A clearly written email is a good place to start. Not a bashing like is typical for the forums, linden answers, and the blog. Including insults is not the way to go. While some believe Torley to be useless, I know from past experience she is not. A simple talk with her has helped get animation bugs fixed when bug reports were doing nothing.

Then you always have the town hall. Which does seem more like a PR junket now then anything. But you might get the ear of Philip and all residents listening in. You never know if you don't try. Again, attitude is the key. You phrase your question as in insult, you couldn't then possibly be a big enough moron to think they'd put you through.

If you still aren't making the waves you think is necessary, get a group of cool headed people who agree and respectfully ask for a meeting. Get some high end content creators in there with you if you can. We all hate to admit it, but they do hold more weight then the rest of the population. If no one made widgets to sell, no one would buy them, and SL would be empty. This should only be used as a slight extra push. Puff up your chest too much and you might get burned. While very few are irreplaceable (starax for example) we all know if one big content creator falls someone else will step up and take their place.

If again, things still aren't being done, then make some picket signs. Make t-shirts stating your cause. Take them to town halls or to Linden isle or whatever places they have now. Take screen shots and send them to the press. But be civilized about it.

In short, you have to always remember that you are asking people to change their minds on decisions. It's not like LL is some kind of greedy corporation like Enron, else they'd be making something more commercial like World of Warcraft.

It's never an easy thing to do, changing people's minds. You insult or push to hard they will just ignore you. At the end of the day you might not get what you want, but at least your voice was heard. Sometimes LL just can't do anything about it (like texture ripping), sometimes another group with more influence is pushing harder (estate land sales), and others they just think they are doing the right thing (selling L$).

Lewis,
I respect the ideal behind what you are doing here very much. I do not think your beef is with blogs.. but with the LL use of it. I just wish LL's track record lately showed a company that is willing to budge on it's decision when the customer base is not happy with them.

I do wish you luck on this. If anything can sway them to give up this fiasco of one way communication at Word Press I support it (short of griefing or something of the nature, which I would never support for anything).

Having said that I am reminded often of Robin's initial blog post telling us about the changes coming to the forums.



And then this yesterday:



Read those again and really think about them. It hit me this morning what they are REALLY saying.

It is not that this stuff (the wordpress problems, etc) are intentional ways to push off the voice of the residents. They are however fulifilling the dominant goal of LL. Feeding us the communication. That is the focus. Though this board is more then capable and has shown itself over and over to be the one thing that is normally able to be trusted to be online in SL.. the formula had to be tweaked with by someone who loves blogs.

The blog won't go away. It is done and is not in transistion anymore. I think the hope of whatever group of Lindens that is so adament about it being this way changing thier mind is not gonna happen.

Our world.. thier terms. The focus may need to be on rallying behind the blog system being fixed to be accesible for comments without having to sign up for another email provider or signing up for a third party account that is likely to spam us to death. That my friends is a distilled achievable right there. LL is gonna have to do some work to achieve it though.. wordpress is not the answer.