Thought Police Patrol the Blog

It surprises me that serious, well-reasoned critiques of SL are now being deleted from the blog. It seems that now it is just going to be a marketing venue, and only happy news will be tolerated. In the past LL did allow the voicing of serious concerns.

This morning there were 74 comments here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/09/12/frank-ambrose-updates-on-the-second-life-grid/

Two hours later there were 72. Of course, the thread had been heavily editted already.. but one of the missing posts was a long comment by the owner of the largest store of its kind in SL. The comment was calm but very concerned about business conditions in SL. She pointed out evidence of RL businesses leaving SL en masse, as well as evidence that building activity in general, perhaps even for personal uses, is way down. She shared her sadness at seeing SL becoming yet another 3D chat room, where content creation was no longer a matter of course for new residents.

She observed that Linden comments referring to "impassioned" residents were less than accurate, citing that a year ago, comments on that block post would have filled up within hours. Which is true.

She named no names and broke no rules in her comment. She simply was critical of LL, and expressed doubt that this new senior VP was in time to turn things around.

Comments are now closed on that posting.

Let me share the only quote I know from this series of novels, which I've always remembered because it is the surest way to sink a startup company:


(The Lady Jessica to her daughter Alia, in Frank Herbert's Children of Dune)

Mitch's Era of Pragmatism has begun. LL has beome "The Corporation".

I didn't see the post but I guess it was considered off topic. There's something wrong with the blog this last month or so anyway, the lack of updates suggests there has been a change of policy on how they blog should be used. They probably feel it's a little too public.

However every blog post with comments attracts criticism of some sort.

Perhaps. However, it followed up on an earlier comment, which is still there.

Regardless, I would not delete a serious, well-reasoned comment by the owner of a very important inworld business without even a message to her. Which, she tells me, they did not bother sending.

I think LL is making it clear that we should regard the blog as simply an SL newswire. If they want to hear from us, they will start a forum thread. Certainly I will not bother commenting there again.
.

I think fewer posts get deleted from this board than any other forums I've used unconnected with SL!

well, once the ebay mods hit these forums I will have to leave since I doubt if anyone will be allowed to speak their minds.... forum bots anyone?

It is their blog they can delete whomever they want too I guess.
They need to make it look a certain way in same way TSO dealt with people from beta who complained about stuff when it went public.
Yeah they can change how complaints are seen but if they don't do anything to improve the product, SL could go the way TSO went very easily too in five year or less.

why do people think they have ANY rights at all in regards to SecondLife?

this is a private company, running a business. It exists to make profit.

they can delete anything they want at any time, no reasons are needed.....

Want freedom of speeeeeeeech? post on ur own bl0g

I wondered what that rattling noise has been in my head lately, still better than an earwig.

Haven't been doing that forever?

My biggest annoyance with that blog post is that I didn't get a bear. I asked nicely and everything..

You have a nice day too!

Goooood for you Colette, hang out here for a little while and GET OUT OF THAT THREAD ON SLU, it will seemingly do nothing at this point but deplete your O2 levels.

I would like to apologise firstly for my over use of the "" quotes...its either that or capital letters to make my point lol

I am going to be a hard nosed now..sorry, this isnt aimed at you in particular but people who say " they can do what they want they are trying to run a business"

And your correct..infact I have quoted the very same thing myself.

BUT they are not AOL or British Telecom..or Dell Computers.. what they are selling is a " community" based environment and always send out messeges aimed at the "community" they refer to us as "residents" NEVER "customers" in letters, when you telephone them they always refer to you by your SL name when we all know they know your rl ID ( assuming you pay for your services ) and as such they invite us to feel we should have a say in our/their "community"

They hold meetings in world inviting us to ask them questions and issue statements in these in these meetings.. they constantly say in public and marketing interviews.

" SL was and is built by is passionate community..all we do is provide the land...everything you see here *video* was made by the residents...."

We are talked "about" but not "to"
We are told " speak when your spoken to" and " be seen but not heard"

The BIGGEST argument to your quote is the fact even if SL was some standard company say for example your internet provider or telephone service... and your paying on average.. $300 a month for your service..and things started to go shit shaped...there is someone you can complain to and you get "some" kind of response to that complaint..

The reaosn why ppl get so pissed off and frustrated with LL IMO is because some of us. ( albeit i suspect a dying number ) pay a lot of money to use SL for business or fun or both and feel despite the crappy level of service of the grid..having a knock on effect on our own income and business/ level of quality and fun, we have no one ( and I mean that ) who will "listen"

When I was in customer care in my youth we were taught when you get a ranting and raving person telephone you...just listen...dont defend...dont argue...even if they are talking crap...LET them vent
THATS 80% of the reason why they are calling..they dont "expect" a refund... they dont "expect" you to do much ( even if they ask ).. but just having someone who represents the company to vent to is more than half the relief.

Sure, even better if they put you through to a manager...and that manager says " yes we ARE sorry we DO realise its causing problems and we are working as hard as we can and we expect service to resume within the next 4 days 4 weeks 4 years..."

THATS the point of customer service not that the company can change the reason or fault but just that they are there and listening and your business IS important..

LL fail to give us any impression they are listening.. and as such care.

Should they care?

Damb straight..we are the reason they have a businesss or make profit...telling your customers....the very people who pay your wages to " shut up" or " dont say that here its too public " is not a good business move.

If they provided some kind of pro active customer care service...sent us all an email..saying how they valued our service and custom , perhaps touch on some of the things heard in rumours and sent some assurances out.. THAT would go a long way to showing they DO care about our opinions and our custom.
If they sent us 3,000L in world to make up for " loss of service" and a brief messege that they can assure us it is as important to them as it is to us that SL runs smoothly...after all their wages depend on us...
THAT Would calm a lot of frazzeled nerves..

Boy they dont mess about if your land fee is later...that emails straight on its way to you with polite threats of " you have a week "

Why not be pro active about customer care...its obvious their customers feel cheated and pissed.

Its not rocket science. Its basic " business customer care "

My recent experience of LL customer service is that it has improved a lot since i used it just over a year ago. Yeah maybe they could do things differently, heck every company in the world could do something to improve its customer service, but that doesn't happen overnight and yes i own sims and spend a lot of money every month in here promoting my RL businesses.

However and this to me is the baseline. If i am not happy with the way LL does/runs its customer service, or if i am unhappy with the way my complaints/inquiries are handled then i can always leave the game and perhaps if enough people leave the game then maybe things will change for some people. But as i have just said i am impressed with the way my recent dealings were handled by them

If i am unhappy with a service that perhaps gives bad customer service i will leave that service, i ve just done that with my gas/electric company here in Holland. The reason people won't leave atm imho is that there is nothing remotely like SL out there and also people in general just like moaning lol so if people are unhappy just leave then LL may see a change in membership and perhaps correct things that you want corrected but there again they may just continue to improve as they grow and i agree totally with poopmaster oh we don't have any rights over SL we signed them away when we agreed to the TOS

*snort* I say let them butcher the heck outta the blog (keeping their pink cloud delight). I'd far rather comment here, and thus discuss things with the ones that care about SL the most.

The blog is just that.. a blog. Announcements but not discussion, which was it's purposed to begin with. LL created it, because it seemed the "thing to do" and then closed the forums for a while.. because the forums made Lindens cry.

I mean, they'd just opened the flood gates, the grid started going down on a daily basis, and it was frustrating. The forums began to reflect that level of frustration, with people sniping and snapping at each other. And complaining constantly about the related issues of open account creation, grid instability and client crashing.

They then realized that we needed some official place to ask questions and maybe get answers. Thus, Resident Answers. Now, RA is becoming the new General Discussions, which is great, because General Discussions is the barometer for user confidence in SL.

So, the least we can do.. is to not comment on the blog and let 'em keep their rose colored glasses for the passerby.

Much snipped but this is the part that I really want to hold up and wave about:

QFT

I don't care about the money ... I am sure a lot of people do but then, they are probably paying a lot more money in than I am, and some depend on the money they get out...

What bothers me is that, perhaps foolishly, I have invested some of my passion into SL. If LL said in their advertising "Don't get excited, don't immerse yourself, don't get emotionally attached, don't feel like you make a difference, don't feel like you are part of something new, wonderful, big, innovative, bleeding edge." then I might not get upset when they make me feel I don't. But its what they do say.


Imogen

I always felt that the blog was a very weak vehicle for getting free and full comment and discussion - but that does not deny the need for such comment and discussion.

LL have a product where their very own customers - the "Residents" put the icing on the cake of their product. The nature of customer involvement in SL is unique. LL need very special customers - customers that are passionate about SL and who will invest their time, energy, emotion and commitment to the virtual community. LL will not get those sort of customers if they do not have a functional mechanism for Residents being heard and a typical user group type of approach is inadequate.

Perhaps in LL's eyes we have changed from residents to re$ident$. Send the money, not any comments. Behave and we will allow you to send us more $.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

There is a reason the last post in the old General was on the

"Its official the Blog is useless" thread ... Last Post made by Raudf Fox

Dear Valued Customer with the Koolaid picture on the avatar that is yours ..

Please do not be making the sarcastical comments about the future of the party Third moderations that the Lab of Lindens have contracted.

aabhar very much,

Your Outsourced Moderation team.

love it hehehe

*chortles* Well, at least it's well documented that my opinion on it's not going to change any time soon!

And it was pure luck that I happened to hit enter on that post at the right second to be able to make it a lasting monument.



Keyboard. You owe me one.

Not bad. Maybe You and Trout should collaborate.


Of course Collaborators will be shot if captured. Just sayin'

Oh you are getting all up in my face now are you, person with the avatar of Koolaid picture?

We of the Team of Moderation will not (word did not translate) stand for this!

Consider yourself the most strictly warned.


No longer thanking you as much,

Your Outsourced Moderation Team.