Some observations and suggestions on SIVA

This posting could have probably gone into a couple of different forums but after tonight I think it better here in answers. The last few updates should have shown by now that SIVA as it is currently setup is not a competent test for updates. I have spent a LOT of time in SIVA in the last 3 weeks. 2-6 hours per day whenever SIVA was open. Logging bugs and playing. Not paid for it, it was frustrating at times and no freinds like the main grid BUT........ I have derived a great deal of pleasure from this game called Second Life and I feel I can make my small contribution doing this.

But some things have alarmed me in SIVA. For the last 3 weeks I have seen 3 other people there on a consistent basis, Gearsawe, Suzanne and also Milo Linden. All of us doing the same, finding and logging bugs. There were others at times but except for the last 2 days that is the most I saw at any one time was 4 people!!!!!!!!!!! 90% of the time it was only 1-2 people. There were a lot of bugs too and I am very impressed with the work that QA was doing. Milo Linden was logging our bugs and also sending us emails with much appreciated feedback on the individual bugs. I have also seen him in the grid at 4 AM still working (4 AM HIS time). But until 2 days ago there was no real load on the servers and not enough bug logging. 2 days ago was when the bug hunters finally showed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why did they wait so long? We weren't paid for it but we were there, except for Milo and a cpl other Lindens why weren't the paid bug hunters there earlier?????????

For just a few days when we could actually buy land there, the SIVA grid is static. The same builds always there for months. I can understand that we would need to see if something had changed but why not at least wipe 25% of the grid and set it for sale every update??? I am a paid account but I can't afford extra tier so all I have is my little 512. OMG it was so fun buying 4096 sqM and building on MY land with MY jams rocking!!!!! Even if I knew it was temporary, I didn't care, it was a blast, plus I was able to buy, join, terraform, divide and join again. I felt like a land baron heehee. Doesn't anyone understand how many more there are in main grid that are in the same boat I am? Don't you realise how many people would come to SIVA to play like me if they could actually do something except to build in just 2 (yes that is right just 2) sandboxes and only one of them allowed scripts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't it be better to have 1 or 2 hundred people in Siva everyday????????? To have a sh*tload of bug reports????? To find so many more problems? Unless I am missing something wouldn't this be completely FREE for Linden Labs???? It wouldn't really be more work for QA, actually it should be less. 100 reports on the same bug, each giving different veiwpoints would make it much easier to trace the bug.

THis is not a bitching post, again I want to say that I am very impressed with Quality Assurance if every one of them work like Milo then OMG!!!! But they need bugs reported to be able to fix bugs. I do not know where the bottleneck is or who has set the policy that the preview grid needs to stay static. All I can say is shame on them because there are people that love SL and want to help but are not given the opportunity to help.

just my opinion

You have a lot of great suggestions here--and you mentioned Milo too. Since he spends a lot of time previewing and is an expert on this, I'm going forward your post to him for further answerage!

Hi there

Sorry for the delay been prepping for todays optional update 1.12.1.11

When we bring up a grid for testing its usually a standard set of regions, most of these are fairly empty or contain a few builds eg the welcome areas, then we also bring up some built up areas like miramare, lusk, tehama, a private island, We also have some hidden sims for both testing and teen grid sims.

This grid setup is fairly versatile in its content or lack of it, it means we can set aside land for sale if needed, its quite an effor for us to do that though, we have to make sure the grid is setup to allow public purchases as well as provide sufficient funds, and on top of that we actually have to put the parcels up for sale.

Also having the same regions allows us to benchmark speeds, memory usage, and alot of other statistics between builds and we correlate data between these, especially when we have the pile on tests.

I do agree about that one sandbox, im not sure why that one was picked, and will see about getting it exchanged for one of the others.

We do and try and let the public in as soon as possible, we have now for a few months had a two stage proccess for bring updates to the public beta grid, for example a development team will work on a number of issues or new designs there will be documentation what the bug is or new feature, these are in the format you see on the known issues page, the team will say we've fixed these or implemented these features, and ask for it to get placed onto one of our internal test grids, it will then get passed to quality assurance, where we may well send it back and forward as we find issues and work with the developers to fix everything we find, as soon as both parties are happy it will then get all combined together and placed on the public beta grid, where quality assurance will once again test all the items originally tested, as well as reading all bug reports made within preview and replying if we have time, i like to reply just as a small sign of thanks, and although the inworld population seems small at times, sometimes people pop on for 15 mins and test what they need to and bug report, we usually get around 500 reports for something like 1.12.1, and closer to 1000 for a major release like 1.12 all of which were read, entered into the system if they were reproducable and a final release decision is made depening on the bugs in the system, ie we wont release with a showstopper or critical bug and major bugs are looked at carefully, this is what happened a few weeks ago when we delayed for a week.

I believe we are currently working on bringing back our inworld tests, but the test list is a good start on the knowledge base, obviously with priority testing going to areas that have had changes made like we did with groups and estate landsales, the last release was especially tough as it touched pretty much every single part of the user interface and although there were a handfull of bugs we missed in the end which is unfortunate, considering the changes we made and what we caught in preview it went fairly smoothly although any bug we missed is a dissapointment, its not like any of us wants to release like that, but as you said unless we know about the bug we cant fix.

Also as you said we should try and inform about up/downtime of the preview grid(s) i'll try and get something sorted out either in the forum or knowledgebase.

Phew
Milo.