Should Beta ever be down?

I don't see why Beta should ever be down. Even if it's running the same version, it's useful as a test grid, and it's a place you can poke at bugs that are just too plain scary to play with on the main grid, like when you *think* you might be losing inventory.

It shouldn't ever be down.

I do think there are cases where the Beta grid certainly SHOULD be shut down. The current situation, where a dangerous exploit is being investigated on the main grid, is a prime example of that. Consider this:

Main grid is closed, because a new and possibly serious exploit is being investigated.

Beta grid, same release version or very close, presumably has the same bug.

If you don't close both grids, the hackers and crashers can flock to the test grid, to try to find the hole that they now are certain exists, and see if they can understand how to exploit it fully. They get free lab time for building attacks.

Grid comes back up, and the hackers rush back to the main grid, trying the most obscure varaitions of the exploit that they can imagine, trying to find a hole the Lindens missed. Odds are pretty good they will find one.

If they close both grids, the hackers don't get the access to determine on their own what the exploit was. In my mind, that is MUCH safer.

Maybe a separate grid could be set up that just copies the log-in info. No inventory, ect…

It only needs 6 sims and a separate, lower power, asset server.

So... Let us have fun on the test/beta grid and see what we can come up with.

Land would have to be set for sale and retain ownership. Each account would get the tier and money they have in there account.

Although you are correct that some grefiers could test things on the beta grid and then latter reuse that knowledge, I think it would be better since a separate community would spring up in the "Test" grid. This means more people in it and it would grow.

The main difference is that the "test" grid would be different in that it is NOT guaranteed to be up all the time and might have some deliberate holes to waste the grefiers time.

Because OpenGL is used anyone can copy any texture with a little work, We can see how anything is built and make a copy prim by prim. So permissions really only have an effect on scripts, no matter how we would wish otherwise. Unfortunately scripts are the one and only thing that can be brought from the beta grid to the main grid.

So I would have to agree with Ceera on this one. If someone could have gone into Beta, bought an item and changed it to mod, they could open and copy the scripts.

I agree with Ceera, but I also see the need for the "Experimental" grid.

Set up a separate grid with it’s own asset database and load version 1.3 on it.

You would arrive in a bleak barren land with only the default clothes so there is nothing to steal.

Anything you create in the "Experimental" grid should stay persistent including land sales, inventory and buildings. The users main grid tier would limit how much land they could own.

Under normal circumstances, the Beta grid is perfect for 'experimetal' use. It's only when a seriously hazzardous condition exists that both grids should close.

Yeah, I like using it to test anything physics related and as a result potentially 'messy' (e.g a cannon could leave tons of projectiles lying around).
If I do it in an empty beta grid sim at least I know that if something goes horribly wrong I'm not destroying someone's business, while I could still piss someone off or make a big mess, it's not as hard to fix.

OK, in the recent situation I can see Beta being *taken down* because of the exploit.

When I posted the original article I was thinking of a general policy. Beta generally gets taken down pretty much as soon as the release seems stable, and doesn't come up again until there's a new version Linden Labs wants to test. Replace "ever" with "routinely"... should Beta go down simply because the main grid has caught up?

I don't think it should, it's an ideal sandbox for scripting, since scripts can be easily copy/pasted back to the main-grid. We don't really want people testing potentially dangerous scripts on the main grid do we? Indeed many sandboxes I've seen have scripts turned off, ie they are build only and may require group membership to use scripts.
It might be better if when the beta grid isn't in use, it is cleared to make it a building area? All land is empty with no restrictions on building. Land is left the same though so there is some varied terrain to play with. Maybe leave one or two sims untouched so that things that require real builds (for some reason) can still be tested.
Maybe just have the sims reset every now and then, returning any items contained within them, doing it at set times with warning?

So in that way it's a beta grid for new versions AND for new scripts that might not be suitable for release, whether because they have potentially serious bugs, or would benefit from a low-lag environment for thorough testing without waiting due to lag.

When it's closed to users is it not at least sometimes being used by the Linden staff?

iirc the Lindens have another testing grid of their own?

Perhaps they use two when they are available?