LL Cracking Down?

Recently LL has banned adfarming for the sake of extortion and seems to be taking things seriously. Now I hear they are cracking down on scammers who create L$ draining objects to trick other residence accounts if they accidentally give permission to the object. Up until a few weeks ago, if you were violated in SL by a scammer or a bot or a grieffer, you were pretty much on your own unless LL's interests were directly harmed by it as well. This is not to say they didn't take anything seriously, but their customer service has improved recently.

Does anyone have a clue as to what is making LL act so responsibly recently?

Are they planning to hike tiers or something else self serving, and just want us in a good mood?

And if this is a trend, what do you think is next to be fixed SOCIALLY (not counting technical failures as those aren't as easily fixed)?

Maybe Cory's replacement is responsible?

Maybe they are preparing for the massive enforcement that will be needed when Age-verification comes online?

Maybe someone named them in a threatened lawsuit again?

Maybe they are preparing to sell Second Life?

Maybe the 2 Lindens responsible for investigating ARs got caught and had to end their office romance?

I can only guess that if they want to continue to grow and market to major corporations they can't be seen as the renegade wild west any longer.

I also think they current customer base has spoken up and spoken loudly. The number of scams had reached the point that too many people had been affected and it's rare to find a person who hadn't been affected directly or knows someone who has. That's a pretty bad percentage.

No company wants that kind of bad publicity on a regular basis.

This is what I heard as well. It is just a rumor and unverified, but I've heard the Cory's departure is part of a greater restructuring and change in direction in LL.

Whatever the cause of the change, the results are good! Banning ad lots and bank scams, using volunteers to add roads and content to the mainland, better customer service...

If they hike tiers, then it will have the same effect as it did when they banned gambling. A bunch of land will go up for sale and a bunch of people leave and go to an online competitor. Tier is expensive enough and even worse for those paying VAT taxes.

Even if it wasn't part of such a change in the first place, his leaving certainly would cause that.

Mari

Didn't Daniel "DOB your neighbor" leave too?

"Maybe the 2 Lindens responsible for investigating ARs got caught and had to end their office romance?"

This is why I love Colette!

As best as I can recall, yes. Also Chadrick (fka Adam) and Iridium.

Mari

I see all this as a normal transition from 'startup mode' to 'mature company' mode.

It's right on schedule, too.

As for Cory - well, let me put it this way. We wouldn't be here *now* if it wasn't for Cory *then*... I can't overstate this enough.

Sure, startup business requirements are different - a lot of the great changes we see now are coming from the benefits of a large userbase.

It was (and is) a double-edged sword to let the world rush in for free... the good side, is that the Company can slowly start to do stuff, based on the income from a large number of residents that converted to paying customers.

I had a long talk with an established resident the other night on that. Frankly, on both ways you can read the above.

Mari

well i figured theyd have had to get back to work then

I mean work work .. for like the customers.