General questions..

Does anyone know..:

1) if there's a way to contact LL by _e-mail_? and do the 'Lindens' answer back?
2) if there's a _open_ forum for general topics (philosophical/political/economical/ethical/whatever threads), hosted by LL? (i saw something bout supporting free exchange of ideas in sl web site..)
3) why everyone in SL cares about the 1/300 of a us dollar? why there's a tendency to become a master in deceiving your fellow 'avatar'???
4) why SL viewer uses the cpu so much? even when you've resized the SL viewer window to the minimum size? even when nothing is moving/changing around your avatar? will the 'Lindens' eventually fry my laptop while my avatar's dancing?? (cause he wants to buy some stuff... maybe some thirst for L$5_99_)

As a concept, the second life is a _great idea_. Also, if you care only for wandering around in the SL world, you may spend some RL time nicely.

There are many things that prevent this virtual world from developing in a right (in my opinion) way. It's not my job to define these but there should be an appropriate place in the forums section. And I'm not talking about bugs and stuff like that, it's the general nature of the project that seems to replicate within itself its reason of existence. Is it a 'second life' or 'another market'?

I'm sorry if this post is not in the right place, or too tedious for you. I've got no problem if a 'Linden' deletes my post due to irrelevance...

I've gotta go now.. found some nice places to visit in SL.. hope my computer survives (joking..)

I think this is only available for billing issues, but I'm not sure.



No. There _was_, a long while back, but it was taken down.



Because there's a limit to the number of times you can spend even 1/300 of a US dollar. Also, because SL society frames those who do not spend real money for L$ as the most successful.



Because it's constantly checking with the server to make sure that nothing has changed, and to keep your own avatar in sync. Also, it has a whole set of rather odd internal subsystems that run all the time, such as an internal file system - I think the open source folks have considered removing some of them.



The basic history:
1. SL was launched with a system where everyone paid only a subscription fee, and then could have as much land as they could earn with L$. L$ couldn't be bought or sold by real money.
2. Since more land costs LL real money to host, someone pointed out that this was a Ponzi scheme - the hosting of the extra land a successful user earned, was paid for by the subscriptions of incoming users.
3. LL introduced staggered US$ subscriptions based on amount of land area, ie tier.
4. Users introduced exchange of L$ for US$ to prevent
a) creators of valuable content building up more and more "useless" L$ while having to fund their land from their own pockets, and
b) users who just wanted to consume and have fun finding they couldn't do so because to earn L$ would need them to spend as much time creating as the people who just wanted to create. (Remember, prior to this, buying them wasn't an option!)
5. Professionals and real significant US$ stakes became factors in SL, and as a result LL lost control of the project.

Oh yeah? I've yet to meet anyone who's hit that limit. Just ask Lil about her inventory. It's a fright, really



This is news to me. What is this society of which you speak?
I couldn't care less where people get their Lindens from (well, as long as it's legal). My measure of success has nothing to do with L$ at all.

B.

Oh, sure. The point is, as soon as you're spending any real money at all, you have to budget. If you're not spending real money, you don't have to.



I know that's true for individuals, but the media standand - and one seen often on this forum - is that the "successful" individuals aren't buying L$. Whether that's because they are great artists and don't need them, or because they run successful businesses, is variable.

1) You sure can. First, decide who you want to say something to. Example: on a cruise ship, telling the boiler room guy that you want sugar with your tea won't be terribly effective.

Start here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Office_Hours ...and get an idea who you want to talk *to* - first. Likely you can email them after the fact as you insist, but this will get you an immediate meeting with people ranging from customer service to engineering management.

Incidentally, just *imagine* trying to get the same kind of meeting with someone at General Motors, or Coca Cola, or what-have-you. Linden Research is one of the most transparent companies for its size, on earth.

2) They have a plan for revamping the forums, and I suspect that if you are generally civil enough you won't be cracked down on too hard right here in Resident Answers. Yet if you want to talk about 'just whatever' I'd recommend looking up third party forums and blogs for now, if you want to stick to the letter of the rules. Odds are though, I think we'll be seeing a lot of rays of sunshine here soon and they won't be too fast to break out the ban hammer. Unless of course someone is being an arse.

3) I care about 1/300 of a US dollar because I pay tier for 40+ regions via $L micropayments. Currently 90,660 USD annually. See a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll get good luck

4) I'm not entirely sure why the software uses 100% of the cpu, but I think it may have more to do with 'potential' - grabbing the performance at all times because when you need them suddenly... they had better be there for the client viewer, and not going to bring your client to a standstill because they are being used for whatever else program. Good technique? I dunno. That's my best guess on the matter; take for what it's worth.

* * * * *

As for those seen making $L here as a success... well, it's sort of situational.

That's the case *here* - but when you are at work at the office, you are likely seen as successful for having your job *there* and spending 20 bucks a month on the grid. As opposed to making 20 bucks a month on the grid, and scraping by in your first life...

...and it's only one definition of success. Winning Olympic athletes have gone back to their jobs at WalMart - does that make them failures? How about a guy who utterly failed at his dream of becoming a country music star, crying his eyes out even while he's the very wealthiest used car salesman in three states? Or say, the guy who gets dumped by an ugly, abusive girlfriend... success or fail? How about Kurt Cobain, or D. B. Cooper, or John Lennon... success or fail? Thomas Jefferson? (he died broke and owing money)

It's a really interesting thing, success... it's absolutely up to you. Looking back, I think I would have been far better off as a grocer in a small, close-knit town in a place with really good air quality and wild animals.

Thank you for your answers, some of which enlightened my point of view.

I very much like the idea of second life and I hope I'll be able to contribute so that the user experience gets better.

I can't say whether the L$ help this world grow, but I am happy to see that real people work on and *play* with the project, regardless of their motives to do this. Thanks again.

Of all the unrealized Real Life dreams that people bring to Second Life, hoping to at last be able to experience them in the virtual world, 'being a grocer' must be the most poignant of all.


(^_~)