feature priority

jarod, you posted the wrong question in this thread.

i think you failed to realize that the two statements are diametrically opposed. one is true, the other is not. the question is which?

ll don't seem to realize that publishing an api will mean that they don't have to bother developing, testing and integrating loads of features for second life because we will invent them ourselves. ergo, i'm inclined to trust robins statements that it is a low priorty and, in fact, isn't even on the table.

there will be no revolutionary use of the software because we'll never have the tool that we need to make that happen. now stop dreaming and just enjoy second life for what it is. go...play tringo...have cybersex...build something...

In guess I need to say this in the most vile and debase way...

I want to have kinky, horribly sadistic cybersex with an avatar. I want to tie her down to a pendulem and "listen" to the pleas for mercy as the avatar writes and twists in her bonds. I want to go through deathtrap scenario after deathtrap scenario with my own, personal, virtual Batgirl.

AND I NEED AN API TO DO THIS!

I could go off and have the best cybersex imaginable, unfettered by the stamina, attention, and emotions of a human partner. However UNTIL I GET AN API, I can't do this!

If I wanted to enjoy Second Life for what is it, a place to meet new and interesting people, I'd go out into the real world and meet new and interesting people. Second Life is a virtual world with limitless constraints, where I am free to do what I want... At least it will be if we ever get an API.

you don't get it either. yes you would be able to do that because anybody would be able to do anything. anything. the beauty of it is that ll would never again have to develop or support llthis() or llthat() because the burden would be shifted to us to build our own tools and provide our own services.

just as we build our own virtual environments inworld now, we would build our own interfaces and associated data streams to support the options in those screens.

what's more, ll could lauralize a bit. there'd be no danger of competition because noone could possibly produce a package that let us build our own worlds any more than second life with an api would. ll and their happy residents would be set for life, first and second.

Of course that would put the developers out of a job...

well yeah. that's one good point for ll. they don't have to maintain an ever growing stable of feature developers. they only have to code the servers. we will be able to build clients that can draw on their server data, as well as dozens of other resources that we provide ourselves, to project our own interpretation of the world. the devs won't be out of a job necessarily. they'll just have to write client code as contractors and market it independently. they'll be able to design and implement the same types of solutions. they'll just have to do it faster and better than the rest of us.

if i could build a client that rendered windy trees with my own textures, streamed music from my server no matter what simulator i was viewing, manufactured multiple cloud layers and rainbows, provided searchable tutorial information from my web server in a proprietary find tab, in short, let me create a world on the grid that other people could enjoy by downloading and installing my plugins, i would be in second life til they closed the lid.

who am i kidding. i'm not going anywhere and they know it.

i wonder if it just confuses, maybe frightens, people because they don't realize that the world doesn't exist. it's not like television where we see a representation of things that are real. i know people don't understand that i "see" things differently through my client because i have lighting off, or shiney on, or the tree av detail slider turned all the way down. oh now i'm just rambling eh.

Moved to feature suggestions for further discussion.

thanks jeska. i'm of the growing opinion that nobody want to talk about it though. it seems strange to me.

actually, it reminds me of the story about the people traveling through hyperspace and suddenly realizing that, when they finished their hundred year trip, their enemies will have lived, and advanced, through thirty-thousand years of unfolded continuum.

if it's true that ll don't have an api in their current development plan, they're already too far behind the curve compared to an api-oriented competitor who starts coding today. those of us who want second life to succeed will just have to hope that ll's "communitiness in a contiguous world" brand will be able to outmarket customizable clients accessing licensed w3b servers all over the net.